Redivivus
by Komillia
Summary: [AU, Complete] In a world different from the one we all know, a young man returns to England to receive a mighty gift from his lord and a young woman returns to England to free the country from its ruler.
1. Prologue

**Redivivus   
Prologue**

This is whole prologue was a short AU experiment but I hope to turn this into something longer. I hope you like it and don't get too confused by it. :)

* * *

Cobwebs. 

The young man took a close look at his fingers, now entwined with the sticky cobweb. A spider, a very small one, was still innocently crawling around the cobweb stuck to his fingers. It was almost as if it did not notice any difference after being removed from the wall. The young man looked closer at the spider, smiled, then effortlessly made a fist and crushed the spider to death. Then he carelessly pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped everything off his hand and dropped the handkerchief to slowly slide down to the floor. Already forgetting about the spider, the young man pushed his glasses up his nose slightly. He had not noticed that they had slid down. 

"It is a very fine castle, sir." 

The voice brought him back to the world and he looked up to see a middle aged and thin man, now simply known as his servant, talking to him. The servant was thoroughly impressed with the castle, having spent the years before his adulthood there. He was enthusiastically pointing and showing, as if every inch of the castle had something interesting and impressive to it. As much as the young man found it somewhat annoying, he had to admit that his servant was right. 

"Yes... it is," the young man answered, somewhat distracted by a rather large telescope on the other side of the room. 

He would never admit it openly, but the castle had intrigued him from the moment he had set foot in it. With its ancient history and all the magic surrounding it, one could not help but to be fascinated and take a liking to it. It would be utterly foolish to give it up, especially since the castle had practically been handed to him for free. 

"This was the headmaster's old office," the servant informed, gesturing to a desk at the back of the room. "I remember when I went here... Dumbledore was the headmaster even back then." 

"I can imagine..." the young man replied. 

A few minutes later he was standing behind the desk, his fingers sliding across the fine wood. He opened the drawer and to his surprise found a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The sight of the bag put a smile to his face as he thought of how it must have belonged to the previous headmaster. His death had been so sudden that no one had bothered to clean his office out properly. The young man pulled out the chair, sat down on it and at once he knew that he belonged there. 

"I've decided... I'll take it." 

The servant smiled. 

"Excellent, I shall inform Lord Voldemort of your decision, Mr Potter." 


	2. Inter spem et metum

**Redivivus   
Chapter 1: Inter spem et metum**

* * *

"Luna..."

"Honestly daddy, you don't have to worry," a young woman with long, dirty blonde hair assured as she walked across the room with several shirts draped over her arms. "It's not like I haven't flooed out of the country before."

Edmund Lovegood crossed his arms and watched his daughter calmly fold her shirts before packing them into her trunk. He could not resist smiling at her when she paused for a moment to adjust the wand tucked behind her ear and then bent down to pick up a frog shaped alarm clock that she had set on the floor earlier. But it did not take long for his smile to fade away. All it took for that to happen was for him to think of the reason why Luna was packing.

"It's not that I'm worried about," Edmund said. "It's just not a good time to go back to England... you'll be in danger and..."

"I'll be writing for the Daily Prophet... writing in the mystical affairs and sightings department," Luna interrupted softly, a twinkle in her eyes revealing how much she was looking forward to it. "I'll just be reporting all the sightings and reports. I won't be in any danger at all."

Edmund crossed his arms and looked at Luna gravely.

"That's not what I meant. No wizard is safe in England anymore... why can't you just stay here? I could get you an internship at Vanaheim Kuriren if you want to."

"No," Luna answered and spoke as gravely as her father did. "I don't want that."

When Luna Lovegood had made up her mind about something, there was no one who could persuade her to change her mind. Edmund thought that sadly it included him but comforted himself upon the fact that he was fortunate to have raised Luna to what she had become. She was stubborn but in no way could he doubt the greatness of her mind and hear.

_That,_ Edward thought solemnly and placed his hands in his pockets. _I simply have to trust._

* * *

The Floo station was as crowded and full of people as Luna remembered it. In that aspect it had not changed at all. A mother was gathering up her children, a stressed wizard ran past a small child so quickly that she almost spun as he zoomed by. There was a constant buzzing all the time from all the words that were said by countless people Luna would never remember the face of. But one thing had changed during the seven years Luna had been gone.

Almost everyone at the station was there to get out of the country.

Luna was standing in one of the more empty parts of the station, the arrivals. She had just stepped out of the fireplace connected to the Floo station she had left from. To her great surprise, only another person had stepped out of the fireplaces the past twenty minutes, excluding her. In the departure section of the station, it seemed quite different. Luna did not have quite as good look of it as she wanted, but what she convinced her that she was one of very few who tried to enter the country.

_It's just like daddy guessed it would be._

She looked down at the old passport in her hand, remembering that the last time she had held it was when she had been on her way out. Suddenly it felt strange to be back in England after all those years in Sweden. When she had left with her father she had only been ten. Now she was seventeen, grown up in the eyes of the world.

Clutching the passport tightly in her hand, Luna picked up her bag that she had set down on the floor earlier. It was heavy, containing a spare change of clothes and a few of her most treasured possessions that she had not dared to send to England before her arrival along with her other belongings. She practically dragged the bag as she walked all the way to the gate, the only way out of the arrivals. Between the gate and her there were a series of small booths. She remembered clearly that these were where the controllers sat, the ones who checked passports. As she approached the booths, she saw that almost everyone was empty except for one, where an old and half asleep wizard sat and. Luna walked over to the booth and knocked lightly on the glass to gain the controller's attention. He jumped upon hearing the knock, but quickly calmed down although he looked surprised to actually see someone standing there.

"Passport please," the controller said in a sleepy tone.

Luna slowly slid her passport through the opening in the booth. The controller took a long look at it and occasionally glanced up to take long looks at her face. After a while he picked up what looked like a perfectly normal glass jar. On a closer look, Luna saw that the jar contained some sort of white sand. The controller took a pinch of the sand and sprinkled it over the passport. The sand seemed to melt into it and the word "Valid" appeared on it with a faint glow. It blinked a couple of times before fading away without leaving a single trace. After that, the controller handed the passport back to Luna.

"May I see your family certificate, please?"

Another thing that had changed since she had left. Luna dug into her pocket and pulled out a folded document. She quickly unfolded it and gave it to the controller, who looked at it just as closely as he had looked at the passport. Then he repeated the process by sprinkling over the sand and once again "Valid" appeared on the parchment. Her blood was pure enough, therefore her ancestry was acceptable.

"Welcome to London, miss Lovegood," the controller said as he returned the certificate to her. "Thank you," Luna murmured as she walked through the gate.

As she walked out of the arrivals, she turned her head the right and looked right at the departures. There were queues everywhere in there and everyone looked so anxious to leave. A man was speaking angrily to a group of controllers about how he had been waiting for an hour for a vacant fireplace. A little boy stood in the middle of the large crowd, holding his mother's hand and almost hiding behind her legs out of shyness. Luna wondered if his family certificates would be valid if his family ever tried to return to England.

* * *

The pocket watch gave a loud "Click" as Harry opened it and looked at its hands. Two o'clock in the afternoon. Two o'clock exactly.

It was usually cloudy that day. The clouds were full and dark grey, threatening to pour rain over the Hogwarts grounds any moment. But for what it was worth the temperature was moderately warm and Harry valued it more than the average person. Perhaps it was all the years spent at Durmstrang that had made him appreciate any climate that was warmer. That was why he was on a walk in an attempt to familiarize himself with his new estate.

Harry sat down on the grass, overlooking the lake. He had seen the Quidditch pitch just a few minutes earlier and was already planning on inviting a few of his old classmates and other friends for a game. That was, when the grass had been trimmed. Right now it looked like a jungle, the way it grew as if it was a wild meadow.

"So it's true then... Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

It was a voice both familiar and, in a way, dear to him. Harry got up on his feet and turned around. Standing before him was a tall and blonde young man, equal in age to Harry and almost in build. His smirk widened and not even Harry could resist showing what looked like a smile.

"Malfoy!" Harry said, shocked and happy. He gave Draco a light pat on the back when he approached him. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard that you were back," Draco answered, half smiling as well. "So I thought I'd come here and see for myself. Finally tired of frostland?"

"I was working," Harry defended himself, although he knew that there was no need to defend himself in front of Draco. "Lord Voldemort needed someone he could trust to watch over those who may or may not be our allies. But he requested my return a few weeks ago... so here I am."

Both of them sat down on the grass, something they usually did when there was not a broom in sight. The words grass and broom made Quidditch come to Harry's mind and he reminded himself to ask Draco to bring his broom next time. As good friends as they were, Quidditch and flying was the one thing they were bitter rivals in. Harry had been a natural when it came to flying but as much as he hated to admit it Draco had improved a lot over the years. Their friendship had been tested two summers ago, during the most bitter and brutal flying contest. Since then they had learned to let the best man win, but none of them had any intention of letting that title go.

But when they were not competing and when there was not a broom around, it seemed most natural for them to sit peacefully side by side. Like best friends or brothers. None of them would admit it but it was soothing and comforting for both of them.

"Working for your father now, aren't you?" Harry asked and Draco nodded.

"I handle father's estates and properties," Draco clarified. "Boring, but someone has to do it. Father hasn't that much time for it... now that he's the head of the ministry, more or less."

Years ago that position had been the highest position that a wizard could ever reach. It belonged to Lucius Malfoy now but it was commonly known that Lucius was acting on behalf of Voldemort. Harry thought it very convenient for his lord that way, ruling without having to deal with the tangled web of laws and regulations that was the ministry. The thought of Voldemort brought up a memory of a past conversation and Harry found himself taking a look at Draco's arm.

"Do you have it yet?" he asked curiously. "The mark?"

Draco shook his head.

"No... father thinks I have a long way to go before I should receive it," he answered. "But he says that it will happen sometime next year. What about you?"

"Not yet," Harry murmured.

He offered Draco no reason for it because to be honest he had no idea at all. In all the letters that had been sent back and forth between him and Voldemort the initiation had never been mentioned. Harry figured that it would come as soon as he was of age but a year had passed since and it had not even been talked about. Upon hearing Draco speak of his upcoming initiation he felt slightly jealous but did his best to hide it.

"It's been a while since we went flying," Draco suddenly said. "Mind if I bring my broom along some day?"

Harry nodded and told himself to start training the moment Draco left the castle.

* * *

A flying memo came flying and Luna ducked just in time to avoid it. When she stood up straight again, she looked up to see that it was only one of dozens of memos flying all around the office of the Daily Prophet. The memos were of different colours and speed and Luna did not really mind spending a few minutes to look at them. The blue ones, she noticed, were the slowest while the red ones just zoomed by so fast that she saw nothing but a red blur. She felt a little tempted to paste together a blue and a red memo just to see how fast it would go then.

"Excuse me, are you looking for someone?"

Luna looked to her left to see a witch with curly, strawberry blonde hair stand there. She was an intern or assistant, something Luna could tell by the fact that she carriage a tray full of coffee cups. The nametag pinned to her robe read "Marietta Edgecombe". Although the question directed to Luna had been friendly, the look on Marietta's face was not. It was clearly one of irritation.

"I'm looking for Mrs Fanny Carter, she works in mysterious affairs and sightings," Luna answered calmly.

The witch rolled her eyes and pointed towards a hectic corner of the office before walking off to deliver the coffee. Luna set off towards that corner although she was unsure of where she was actually heading. Every desk she walked past was messy, filled with notes and drafts. Some of the reporters sat quietly and wrote on their articles, while others always walked back and forth between their own and other desks to ask or confirm things. Luna ducked a series of red memos and looked up to see a small, half closed door. A small sign saying "Mysterious affairs and sightings" hung loosely on the door. Feeling happy with herself, she opened the door and entered.

To her surprise, the room she entered was a rather small office that was almost smaller than Luna's old bedroom in her father's house in Sweden. But despite that it was small, she quite liked it. There were different pictures on the wall, one of them was one of a wizard pointing towards the sky and trying to convince a crowd of that he had just seen. There was another that she liked, one that pictured a group of people dancing at what seemed like a ball. Luna pondered briefly on what kind of mysterious creature had been spotted at that ball and then turned to look at the rest of the room.

Two desks had been squeezed into the office and stood facing each other. One of the desks was empty and dusty, while the other seemed to drown underneath stacks of parchment and various bottles spread all around. Behind a stack of parchment sat an old lady, who was so short that Luna almost missed her. The old lady, wore knitted clothes and robes in bright colours, was currently drinking out of a green bottle and had not even noticed Luna walking in.

"Your kneazle is a little off," Luna suddenly said.

The old woman almost choked, startled by Luna's voice. She pulled the bottle away, coughed a few long seconds. Luna looked at her closely, then walked over to her and helped her set down the bottle on the table.

"Would you like me to punch your back?" Luna asked. "Some people I know say that it helps when you're..."

"No, thank you, dear," the old lady declined and managed to force a smile once her coughing decreased. "I'll be fine..." Another cough. "May I ask... what kneazle were you talking about?"

Luna silently pointed up and to another photograph hanging on the wall. This one was of a rather large kneazle and the photograph was tilting a little to the left. Luna reached up and easily fixed it. The old lady followed Luna with her eyes and smiled again.

"I've been meaning to fix it... but my back is giving me a lot of trouble," the old lady spoke, empathising 'lot'. "I'm Fanny Carter and you are..."

"Luna Lovegood."

"Oh, miss Lovegood!" Mrs Carter exclaimed joyfully. "I've been waiting for you all day! Please, sit down!"

Luna looked around and after a while found a stool that did not have anything stacked upon it. Mrs Carter did not seem to notice her difficulty in finding a seat but was constantly joyous of Luna's presence in the little office.

"I've had such problems going out to write articles lately," Mrs Carter told and adjusted herself in her large, cushioned chair. "My back, you see. But when you work in this section of the paper you just have to get out there. I didn't know for how long I could go on, I'm getting old and going to all those parties is just exhausting. Then your application arrived and I was just so thrilled..."

"Parties?" Luna suddenly interrupted and tried desperately to think of what mysterious species held parties. Some tribe of faeries, perhaps?

"Yes, parties. Most of the time it's balls and parties held by the richer families, there's usually one every fortnight or so... But you're young, I'm sure that you will have a wonderful time."

"Oh."

It occurred to Luna at that very moment that it was another thing that had changed while she was gone. Just thinking about it made her feel like sinking through the stool, dragged down by disappointment. The mysterious affairs and sightings pages of the Daily Prophet were no longer about new and fascinating creatures.

They had turned into the gossip and society pages.

* * *

The servants and the house elves had been working frantically the past two weeks. Apparently the old house elves must have left the castle along with the staff and the students. No one had bothered to look after it since then, something that the new servants and house elves of Hogwarts noted. They had spent the past two weeks cleaning and still more than half the castle was still covered in dust, dirt and cobwebs. Harry congratulated himself upon making the good decision to go to what used to be the dining hall of Hogwarts instead of walking around when so many people were occupied with cleaning. He sat down on his seat, looking over the splendour of the Great Hall. It was one of the few places in the castle that had been entirely cleaned and for that he was grateful.

As he sat there alone and quiet, he pondered on what it would have been like to be one of those students who used to come down to the Great Hall for breakfast every morning. The enchanted ceiling, a feeling of safety and security with the mighty Dumbledore at the staff's table. It must have been much warmer than it had been in Durmstrang, not only because of the temperature but because Hogwarts had a reputation of being softer than Durmstrang and allowing the students fireplaces. Perhaps Harry could ask Malfoy about it.

The thought had barely registered in his mind before he started to laugh at it. Where his sentimentality came from he did not know. After all, none of it mattered anymore. Dumbledore was dead, killed by the dark lord himself. At Hogwarts there was Harry, Voldemort's only heir, and sitting on the very seat that used to belong Dumbledore. Hogwarts was no longer a school, it was his now and his alone. He was free to do whatever he wanted it,

With that in mind, Harry pushed himself up on his feet and started to walk around the Great Hall. The first thing he had to do was to get rid of the old furniture in the Great Hall. It had not deteriorated over the years and was still in good condition, but it was for the better. Who knew how many mudbloods had sat on these chairs or eaten by the tables? Some of the decorations had to be taken down as well. As fascinating as the castle was on it's own, Harry did not desire it to look more like a school than an estate.

"Oh, there you are... They told me I would find you here."

Harry turned around and looked in the direction of where the voice came from. His eyes went to the entrance to the Great Hall and settled on none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. A broad grin formed on his lips upon seeing her.

"Hello mother."

* * *

Notes: I hope you liked this chapter... it's been a little confusing for me to write Luna. I originally planned on her being exactly as she is in the books but after a while I realized that this alternate reality has to had some effect one here. That's why she's not as quirky or dreamy in this story (not to mention a lot less entertaining to read about) but I hope you'll bear to read the future chapters anyway. Thank you for reading this one! :)  
-Komillia  



	3. Infra dignitatem

**Redivivus   
Chapter 2: Infra dignitatem**

_Thanks to everyone who read and left a review. I assure you that there is a perfectly good explaination for everything in the fanfic... it's just a little warped, but I guess that's why it's called an AU. ;) Anyway, thank you so much for reading and commenting and I hope that you'll like this chapter._

_**Bladefanatic** - I'm happy that you're happy that I'm writing Luna. And nicely spotted about the line, I love the way Tom Felton says it in the movie so I had to include it but in a different context. _

_**elvencherry07** - Yes, evil is much more fun to read about and write. ;)_

* * *

"I was told by the servants that you were here," Bellatrix said as she pulled down the hood of her dark blue robe. Her thin lips stretched into a smile that looked more like a smirk as she walked up to Harry. "How is my little boy?"

Without any warning Bellatrix drew Harry into a quick hug and an airy kiss on the cheek. Harry felt somewhat relieved when she pulled away from him. As much as he valued his adoptive other, he did not like being called little and hugged like he was still a child. Nonetheless, he forced a smile to his lips.

"Mother, please. I'm nineteen."

"If you say so, Harry," Bellatrix answered in an absentminded way that lead Harry to think that she'd still greet him the same way next time she came for a visit.

Harry crossed his arms and watched Bellatrix as she kept turning around to get a better look at the Great Hall. It occurred to him that Bellatrix had also gone to Hogwarts once. The thought of it was almost amusing, he could not imagine her running down the hallways or sitting in those now empty classrooms and practising simple levitation spells. For as long as Harry could remember Bellatrix had been strong and proud, to think of her in any other way was impossible.

"That used to be the Slytherin table," Bellatrix told, pointing to the long table placed to their right. "You would have made a fine Slytherin."

"So I've been told."

Bellatrix merely smiled and started to walk about the Great Hall.

"Why didn't you let me and Rodolphus know that you were coming back?" she asked.

"There wasn't any time to owl anyone," Harry replied. "Lord Voldemort requested my return immediately and I had hardly the time to finish my business before returning."

"So you're here to stay?"

Harry merely nodded and Bellatrix looked extremely pleased with his answer. As one of the dark lord's right hands, Harry doubted that Bellatrix had not known of his return. The fact that she came to visit him so soon made Harry suspect that Bellatrix had been behind his return. She had never been the ideal mother, one that took care of the household and lived for her husband and children. But she was proud, strong, tough and cared for him. That was enough for him to think of her as his mother, although she was not by blood.

"How is Rodolphus?" Harry asked.

"Alive," Bellatrix answered with a sigh. "He has gone off to France... to assist Rabastan he said. I'm perfectly sure that he's assisting Rabastan in a world of wine and women."

She did not looked that sad about it, more like resentful and jealous. Harry chuckled lightly, remembering the dozen arguments they had had from his childhood. It had not taken long for him to realise that his adoptive parents were simply like that, always challenging each other and never satisfying the other by backing down. But that did not mean that they were not one in spirit and soul. The Lestranges were more feared than respected and their partnership was one of the most valuable things to Lord Voldemort's cause.

"I am sure Rodolphus isn't doing anything..." Harry paused after a few seconds and only spoke again after doing some thinking. "I'm sure he's well."

"Well indeed," Bellatrix smiled and returned to his side to sit down at the nearest chair. "Now, enough about him. Sit down, talk... tell me what you have been up to."

"Don't you mean what I'm planning to do now that I'm back?"

"If you want to skip the small talk, then yes."

He knew Bellatrix too well and had guessed her intentions the very moment he had discovered that she was there in the Great Hall. She had a reason for coming and it was not to mother him and ask him to come to the house for a nice mother and son dinner. It was typical of her, but he wasn't complaining. Some of his classmates at Durmstrang had mothers like that and he wondered how they put up with that kind of smothering attention.

"I have no plans yet," Harry revealed. "I plan on getting things in order here first before deciding on something."

"I think some things have already been decided for you," Bellatrix smiled again and suddenly Harry felt worried. "Malfoy... Lucius, that is. He has pressed the issue for us to recruit more people. Personally I think it is unnecessary, there is no one standing in our way unless you count that puny Resistance faction."

"That's great but that does that have to do with me?"

"He's pulling strings in the media and thinks that if the public gets better information about us they are more likely to show us their support. Lucius wants you to be the face of this campaign."

Harry simply stared at Bellatrix, eyes a little wider than usual. He did not know whether to get angry or start laughing and ask Bellatrix to congratulate Lucius on his fine but weird sense of humour. If anything Bellatrix seemed amused by the whole thing and his reaction to it.

"Why... how the hell did he come up with that?"

"Oh, don't be surprised," Bellatrix laughed. "You are the only heir of the Dark Lord. He took you in despite of your mudblood mother. You are young, powerful and you will not walk in the same foolish steps your parents did. Who else would be a better candidate?"

"Anyone but me," Harry muttered.

As much as he was flattered by what Bellatrix had just said, the thought of becoming a spokesperson did not appeal to him. He was not one who sought and enjoyed attention, a reason why he had been grateful for Lord Voldemort arranging for him to study abroad.

"You could refuse," Bellatrix said casually. "But I suppose that you'd have to owl Lucius and tell him to cancel."

Harry looked at her curiously.

"Cancel what?"

"Just an interview for the Daily Prophet."

* * *

Unknown to Harry and everyone else in the castle, a lone figure slipped into a dark passage hidden by a statue. The darkness in the castle had been a great advantage to him, cloaking him from the eyes of a servant when he had accidentally dropped his invisibility cloak once. He was grateful that it was time to leave the castle, hiding around the shadows and trying to eavesdrop on conversations was not his idea of spending a Friday evening.

A little less than an hour later he was climbing up the hatch in the cellar of Honeydukes. He did not take time to see if he was alone. It was reckless, but to him just a waste of time. The owner of Honeydukes was aware of the passage and those who used it and could be trusted. He made the way through the shop and unlocked the door. Once he opened it, a powerful shower of rain met him. He stepped back momentarily, not expecting his body to be bombarded and soaked by tiny water drops, but then boldly headed outside.

The rain seemed almost violent, the way it came from down above with such force and in such quantity. Shivering with cold, he performed a simple locking spell on the door to Honeydukes. Once he was done, he turned around and ran as fast as he could. He stepped in muddy puddles as he ran and was well aware of the fact that he was drenched from head to toe.

Slipping around the corner, he got off the road to avoid anyone who might still be outside. Still, he thought it a little unnecessary since no one but him would be out in the rain and he was wearing an invisibility cloak. But it was faster that way and only a few minutes later he was standing in front of an old, shabby house with the windows firmly boarded up. In the dark and the rain the house was more frightening than ever, especially for a person who had grown up thinking that it was a house of terrible screams and dark forces. Forcing himself to stop thinking about it, he raised his hand and knocked on the two.

Two knocks, then stop and then another four knocks.

Three other knocks came from the other side of the door. He relaxed upon hearing them and shortly afterwards the door was opened by another young man who was only a few years older.

"Ron?"

Pushing past him, Ron quickly stepped inside the house and then slipped off his invisibility cloak. Upon Ron becoming fully visible, the other young man relaxed a little as well and closed the door.

"Glad you're okay. Five more minutes and I would have gone looking for you."

"I was fine, Cedric," Ron answered, trying to press the water out of the invisibility cloak by twisting it. When he realised that it was a lost cause, he just swung it over his arm. "Let's just get back to the others."

Cedric Diggory nodded and shortly afterwards they both disapparated from the house with a crack that was drowned out by the sound of the rain falling against the roof. A moment later they reappeared in a much warmer and not to mention safe place. Ron looked up slightly to see the familiar interior of the Burrow and almost smiled when the second thing he caught sight on was an old photograph taken one happy summer a few years ago. It did not mean anything special but there was something about coming home and seeing things that reminded him of what and who was important.

"Cedric, you're back!"

Ron turned around just in time to see a tall and slender girl with dark hair come running out of the kitchen and more or less throw herself into Cedric's arms. Cedric stumbled back and would have lost his balance if he had not fallen back against the wall. But when he had recovered from the surprise he simply smiled and whispered comforting words into the girl's ear.

The couple seemed to withdraw into their own little world with Ron standing there and watching them. However, it did not take long before he had someone else to turn his attention to. Another girl, this one with bushy hair, emerged from the kitchen looking extremely focused and determined.

"Ron! What did you find out?" Hermione asked immediately as she walked up to him from the kitchen. Ron frowned at her not very welcoming behaviour.

"Well, hello to you too..." Ron muttered, throwing both the invisibility cloak and his robe aside. They were both drenched and lay on the floor in a small puddle of water. Hermione paid no attention to his grumpy response.

"Well...?"

"We're in trouble," Ron started and walked through the hallway to get to the kitchen.

Once he entered the kitchen, he immediately caught sight of the rest of the group sitting around the kitchen table. Sitting closest to the window was Parvati Patil, who looked out the window and sipped a cup of tea once in a while. There was Neville Longbottom, who had taken the opportunity to read up on herbs and plants with healing properties, something that Ron had not seen him doing in a long time. Next to Neville was Ron's own sister, Ginny, who also happened to be the only one who did not officially belong to the group. If Ron had been the one to decide, she would not even belong to them unofficially.

"Ginny, get to bed," Ron simply ordered. He pulled out a chair and sat down, completely oblivious to Ginny's furious glares.

"You can't tell me what to do!" she called out.

"Mum and dad left me in charge!" Ron reminded. "We're going to talk here so go to bed!"

"Oh, let her listen, Ron!" a third voice broke in, revealing to be Hermione as she re-entered the kitchen. "She's heard everything we've said so far, might as well let her know this too. And you're dripping wet, why didn't you cast a spell?"

Ron opened his mouth to argue against both things Hermione brought up but a moment later found himself unable to say anything that could make both Hermione and Ginny back down. He closed his mouth and poured himself a cup of hot chocolate with a sour look on his face. Hermione simply rolled her eyes and sat down right across him on the other side of the table. Cedric entered the kitchen quietly, along with the girl, Cho Chang. They both sat down and eagerly waited for Ron to start talking.

"I eavesdropped on the servants," Ron told after a while. "Then I saw him myself. The rumours are true."

"Harry Potter is here?" Ginny asked, eyes wide.

Ron shot her a glare and Ginny just sat back quietly in the chair, knowing that she should just be quiet if she wanted to stay in the kitchen and hear what he had to say. After a large swallow of hot chocolate, Ron continued.

"Yes, he's here and he's turning Hogwarts into his private estate." Every word Ron spoke dripped of anger. "It's our Hogwarts, our school. And there he is, ordering his servants to tear things down and throw them out just because he doesn't like them!"

If he had not been holding his cup with both hands, he probably would have slammed one of his firsts against the table. Hermione, looking a little softer and more sympathetic, put her hand on Ron's shoulder.

"It's not fair," Neville said, his book already forgotten about.

"Hogwarts should have never been abandoned," Cho finished regretfully and glanced at Cedric, who just nodded.

"They'll get what they deserve for it," Parvati suddenly spoke, for the first time. Everyone looked at her and noticed how her voice was one of restrained anger. "There'll be hell to pay."

"Sign me up for that," Ron muttered and put down his empty cup on the table. "But that's not all. Lestrange was there, Bellatrix Lestrange. She was going on about this stupid campaign Lucius Malfoy has planned to get more people on their side and how Potter should be leading it."

Sighs seemed to echo around the kitchen with at least two or three pair of eyes rolling. Hermione looked the most frustrated of them all.

"Honestly, what are they going to say? 'Join the Death Eaters! Let us kill muggles and bond over getting glowing tattoos!' No one is going to fall for these... recruitings!"

"It's not going out and asking people to join, Lestrange said that they were using the media," Ron clarified. "They're fixing an interview with Potter in the Daily Prophet."

"I don't think it's been written yet."

Everyone suddenly looked towards the doorway, where the newest member of the group stood. They had yet to grow used to her presence, which was why no one had noticed that she was the only one missing. But everyone felt a collective pang of guilt for forgetting about her, except for Ron who had not had the opportunity to meet this new member yet.

"That's Luna," Hermione explained upon seeing a slightly puzzled look on Ron's face. He appeared to be staring at Luna and Hermione did not know whether to feel confused or jealous about it. "She's new."

"Okay..." Ron answered, still looking at Luna. "Are those radishes hanging from your ears...? OW!"

Hermione pulled back after pinching his arm and turned to back Luna, who calmly sat down next to Cho.

"Have you heard anything about this article?"

"No," Luna answered. "I've been working there for a week and no one has mentioned it."

"Good," Hermione said, obviously pleased. "Keep both eyes open for it and let me know as soon as you hear anything about it. If you can, find out who's going to write it."

Luna nodded and helped herself to a cup of chocolate and a biscuit. All was quiet for a while with no one having any further questions until Ginny, who had forgotten the whole part about being quiet, unexpectedly spoke.

"I don't understand, why is this article so important?" she asked, looking at Hermione. "Wouldn't it just be the same kind of things they print out anyway?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Hermione answered thoughtfully. "They'll probably make Potter look like some sort of blessed child, going on about how kind You-Know-Who was for taking him in despite his parents and how he has risen above his muggleloving parents! They'll praise him to the skies and by that they'll make every other Death Eater look good as well." Looking extremely irritated with things, Hermione got up from the chair. "I'm going to write to Mrs Jones and tell her. We should just call it a night."

Agreeing with her, the group decided for the meeting to be over. Shortly afterwards Cedric, Cho, Neville, Parvati and Luna flooed back to their own apartments, leaving Ron, Hermione and Ginny alone in the Burrow. After Ron had changed into dry clothes, he came back downstairs and to the kitchen. By that time Hermione had sent the owl and had spread all kinds of maps and charts over the kitchen table. She sat there and marked down different spots on a torn map, occasionally glancing at the charts. She did not look up when Ron entered the kitchen, but heard his footsteps.

"You shouldn't be so harsh on Ginny, you know," Hermione said. "She just wants to help out and do something."

"I'm not," Ron answered defensively. "She's not a part of the Resistance."

"She's is as good as," Hermione retorted. "She's been around for as long as you have and the only reason you and your family won't let her join is because you all think she's too little and that she needs to be protected!"

"She does!"

Ron glared at Hermione when she just rolled her eyes, hating her inability to understand his reasons. It was not that he wanted Ginny to feel left out whenever they had business to discuss, but it was too dangerous for her. She was the youngest, she had never battled against Death Eaters and the more she knew, the more at risk she'd be.

_Why am I the only one who sees that?!_ Ron thought angrily and turned away from Hermione, who had taken a short break from her work. "Well, do what you like," Hermione muttered and said nothing more, but it was clear to Ron that she would bring the subject again some other time. He crossed his arms, childishly refusing to sit down next to Hermione and help her with the maps like he had promised earlier that morning.

_She would be a whole lot nicer if she wasn't so..._

He could never really find that one perfect and right word to describe her.

* * *

Mondays were always the busiest days of the week. At least that what was Luna had been told her entire life. She did not quite understand it. When she had still been at school, Mondays had been somewhat relaxing to her because all her favourite classes took place that day. Now, when she was writing for one of the largest newspapers in the wizarding world, she still did not think of Mondays as stressful. Sure, people were running around the office like mad because there were not enough red memos to send and the blue ones were too slow.

But in the Mysterious Affairs And Sightings department all was calm and especially in Luna's own little corner. Mrs Carter was drinking from one of her mysterious bottles again and only cough once every five minutes. It was an improvement since last weeks, so whatever she drank had to help. Luna sat behind her own little desk and had received her fair share of work. As much as Mrs Carter enjoyed going to parties and gatherings, she had little energy left afterwards to actually turn her notes into articles. Instead she had given Luna that task and so Luna had piles of meetings and gatherings to summarize and write about. But it was not nearly stressful and it was not until an orange memo flew into the office that Mrs Carter remembered that they had almost missed the staff meeting that took place on every Monday morning.

Five minutes later, after Mrs Carter had decided on bringing a bottle made of red glass for her coughing, she and Luna sat in the meeting room. The meeting room's only furniture consisted of only a long rectangular table and several chairs lined up on its sides. Most of the reporters and photographers working at The Daily Prophet were present along with their notepads and folders. Almost all of them had brought a cup of coffee with them and as if it was not enough, there was a huge pot of coffee at one end of the table and a few unused cups. Luna wondered briefly if there was some sort of rule about drinking coffee that no one had told her about.

"Right, I guess we'll start now," Mr Philips, the editor of The Daily Prophet, said and sat down on one end of the table. "What do we have this week?"

One of the reporters raised a quill up in the air and Mr Philips gave an approving nod. Luna listened attentively although with very little interest when one reporter after the other brought forth their ideas for articles to publish other than the ordinary daily ones. She hardly wanted to admit it to herself, but for being reporters who had worked for years they did not impress her. Her thoughts wandered briefly to her father and Vanaheim Kuriren, the newspaper he wrote for back in Sweden. It was just a local newspaper, not groundbreaking but their articles seemed more solid and generally better than the ideas that were being discussed. Since when had The Daily Prophet turned into what felt like a daily newsletter from the ministry and Lucius Malfoy?

It was at the mention of Lucius Malfoy's name that Luna snapped back to the present and the meeting. She looked at Mr Philips, who drank enthusiastically from his big coffee cup. There was that coffee thing again.

"The minister of magic has requested that we interview Mr Harry Potter," Mr Philips announced and several glances were exchanged between the reporters. Mrs Carter, however, just drank from her bottle and was completely oblivious to what had just been said. "As you may or may not know, Mr Potter has returned from Siberia and Minister Malfoy insists that we show him the public attention he deserves. Mrs Carter?"

Mrs Carter coughed briefly and looked up. Mr Philips looked very uncertain and almost frustrated in a way. Perhaps he would start tearing his hair off soon.

"I trust that you will conduct this interview... since it is your department?"

"Oh yes... yes, of course," Mrs Carter answered and smiled quite innocently for a woman her age. Mr Philips did not look that assured by her answer.

"Good... um, good," he said, not looking that convinced. "Take Timmy with you and get a few good pictures."

Luna turned her head to her right and spotted a young man with mousy brown hair sit on the other side. One could not mistake him, Timmy, for anything else than a photographer seeing as he had carried a rather large camera with him into the meeting. His face was the kind that usually looked happy and excited but upon hearing Mr Philips his face seemed to pale and there was a distinct look of fear. Timmy only nodded in response to Mr Philips, as if he was too shocked to speak. Luna looked at him curiously and wondered what could make him look that afraid.


	4. Prima facie

**Redivivus  
Chapter 3: Prima facie**

_A/N: I'm back from vacation now so it was great coming back and reading all the new reviews. Here's an extra long chapter to make up for all the time it took to publish this. :)  
_

_-----  
_

All was calm on Wednesday morning when Luna strolled into the office in a very good mood. It was going to be an easy day since Mrs Carter would be occupied with the Harry Potter interview all day and had only left simple tasks for Luna. All she had to do was to finish them and then she was free to go and do whatever she wanted to. Perhaps she would go to Diagon Alley and find herself a new owl.

But an owl was already waiting for her by the time she arrived and a letter had been placed on her desk. She opened one of Mrs Carter's drawers and grabbed a handful of treats for the owl. After feeding it and giving the owl an appreciative smile, Luna turned around and opened the letter.

_Dear Luna,  
I am sorry to bring this upon you but I am afraid that you will have to conduct the interview in my place. My dog went off chasing a rabbit yesterday and I sprained my ankle looking for him. I am sorry it is all so sudden but it is a great opportunity for you. Good luck!  
Sincerely, Fanny Carter_

No sooner than Luna had finished the letter, Mr Phillips entered the room. His face practically screamed in people's faces about how tired he was and he looked like he had not slept since the last meeting. Mr Phillips looked around the office and barely noticed Luna even though she was standing right in front of him.

"Good morning, Mr Phillips," she greeted happily.

Mr Phillips blinked, as if trying to blink the tiredness out of his red eyes. Then he finally turned to Luna and spoke in a hoarse yet desperate voice.

"Where is she? Where is Mrs Carter? She should have been here an hour ago to go over the questions with me! Where is she?! Minister Malfoy is going to kill me!"

Without saying a single word, Luna simply handed over the letter than she had just finished. Mr Phillips ripped it out of her hands and started to read it intensely. Luna could actually see his eyes moving back and forth while he was reading it. Was it just her or did his hair turn whiter the more he read?

"WHAT?!"

Mr Phillips was holding the letter with such tight grip that Luna thought that he would destroy it. His eyes full of rage did not escape her either.

"You're going to tear apart Mrs Carter's letter," she informed calmly.

Upon hearing what she said, Mr Phillips tore up the letter in half, fourths and then eights before tossing it all over his shoulder. His breathing turned ragged and at any moment Luna expected him to start walking around and pull his hair. It was either that or for steam to come out of his ears.

"WHAT am I going to do?!" Mr Phillips yelled so loud that the kneazle on Mrs Carter's photo gave him a weird look. "He's gonna kill me... I'm dead..."

"I hardly think that it will jump out of the picture and attack you," Luna spoke.

Mr Phillips appeared to not have heard her but in the next moment he grabbed her arm and dragged her out of Mrs Carter's office. Luna frowned but reluctantly walked along with him to wherever he was leading. Finally he stopped near the exit and looked directly into Luna's eyes.

"I hope you know what Mrs Carter prepared for the interview."

"Of course."

"Good." Mr Phillips looked a little more like his usual self. "Timmy is waiting for you in the lobby, you will floo to Hogsmeade Station. A carriage will be waiting for you there to take you to Hogwarts for the interview. Keep in mind that my life, this newspaper and most importantly your job depends on it. Good luck."

He said all of it so fast that Luna had hardly the time to acknowledge it all. But before she could ask any questions she had already been pushed through the doorway and into the lobby. From there she could see Mr Phillips slowly walk back towards his office and asking his assistant to help him write a long letter to his wife, three children and one grandchild.

Shrugging, Luna turned around and walked over to the fireplace. Just next to the fireplace stood Timmy, the photographer. Luna had not seen him since the last meeting but back then he had looked absolutely terrified when he had received the assignment. As she came closer to him, she could see how pale he looked and how much his eyes had widened. Timmy was constantly looking around as if he was afraid of being spotted by someone.

"Timmy?"

Startled, Timmy jumped when he saw Luna. There was a kind of relief when he spotted her, yet he still seemed afraid and very anxious to leave.

"Oh, Luna," he said, trying to sound normal but his voice was shaking a little. "Listen... I can't come with you today. I have to go do something... um... very, very important. Family business even. So I can't come. But here's my camera, it's very easy to use. Just press the button and you'll be all done. Good luck!"

Timmy quickly dropped the camera in Luna's hands and then hurried out of the building, not even giving her a chance to object. The camera felt heavy in Luna's hands, yet she did not think too much of it and just put it in her bag. Timmy's behaviour was more strange to her. He was scared to death but of what?

But seeing as there was nothing else for her to do, Luna entered the fireplace with a fistful of floo powder.

"Hogsmeade Station..."

  
  
_-----_

"Sir?"

Harry looked up to see Bosworth, his butler as of six days, standing in the doorway. Bosworth made a low bow, then stood up straight again and spoke.

"The carriage from Hogsmeade Station has arrived," Bosworth informed in his dull voice. "With the reporter from The Daily Prophet."

Harry sighed and rose from his seat. He made a simple wave with his hand and it was enough for Bosworth to realise that he was to show the girl into the castle. Bosworth bowed again and then walked away.

So it was time for the interview. As Harry left his study and walked through the long corridors he vowed to get back on Lucius somehow for setting this interview up. What kind of pathetic reason had he had in mind anyway? Good publicity? Someone that could give the Death Eaters a younger and fresher face?

_I'm not even a member yet and I already have to go and recruit people. It's like a bloody twisted pyramid game without the rewards._

Harry frowned deeply as he headed down the stairs. Whatever pretty boy image Lucius wanted him to have he did not want it. He decided on conducting the interview as quickly as possible and then send an owl to Lucius about it. There was no way that he would be the lead of this... marketing campaign.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and looked straight forwards. Standing at the end of the hallway was a girl who could not possible be old enough to be a Mrs Carter. From where Harry stood he could see that the girl had blonde hair, wore blue clothes and carried a bag that looked too big for her on her shoulder. The girl stood and watched a painting on the wall. She was watching it with fascination and there was a certain dreamy look on her face that Harry had not seen on anyone for a long time. It was almost as if she was losing herself in the painting, wishing that she walk through the tall grass swaying in the wind...

Harry forced himself to snap out of his thoughts and started to approach the girl. For each step he took he got a better look of her and he saw that she was no older than him. Perhaps even younger. Perhaps she had married really, really early?

"Mrs Carter?" Harry said, suddenly feeling very insecure.

The girl turned away from the painting upon hearing Harry, with only a mild look of surprise.

"Oh, hello."

Harry raised one eyebrow, puzzle. The girl suddenly spoke again.

"I can't do that. Raise just one eyebrow, I mean. I can't help but to raise both."

If Harry had been able to see himself, he would declare that he had never looked as puzzled as he looked right then. He had known this girl for less than a minute and she was already confusing him. After dating numerous girls and being chased by more than he could count he thought that he already had girls figured out.

"Mrs Carter?" he tried again.

"She couldn't make it," the girl told. "Her dog ran away and she sprained her ankle when she tried to find him. I'm Luna Lovegood."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Lovegood," Harry greeted, thankful for the explaination. "I'm Harry Potter."

"I know."

Silence.

"Of course you do," Harry replied, feeling insecurity surfacing again. "Well, shall we?"

He gestured for her to follow him and she nodded briefly. It was with insecurity that Harry led the way through staircases and corridors to get to the room that the servants had prepared for the interview. The staircases were unreliable, they kept changing around and Harry was never sure of exactly where he was going.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Luna following him but rather than focusing on where they were going she was looking around all the time at everything they passed. Paintings, all the staircases, armours and doors that Harry had never seen before. He wondered briefly if she had ever been to Hogwarts before. She was old enough to have been at Hogwarts for a few years while it was still a school and Dumbledore was still alive, but she was looking at everything as if it was for the first time.

When they finally reached the room fifteen minutes later, Harry could only be relieved that he had not lead them wrong and that they were not lost. The moment Harry opened the door he could feel the warmth of the room, not in an overpowering sense, but warm enough to make the room comfortable and cosy. The servants had prepared the room well. All the dust was done and new furniture, carpets and decorations now graced what had once been a classroom.

"Have a seat," Harry invited and gestured towards two dark red and cushioned chairs in front of the fireplace.

Luna gave him another brief nod and sat down on the chair that was closest to her. Harry took the other and watched as she opened her bag. She placed a quill and a roll of parchment on the wooden table that separated the chairs from each other. The quill appeared to be a normal one, not an enchanted one that meant that she had to write by hand. It was unusual for Harry to see someone actually preferring to do things the old way rather than the easy one.

Harry leaned back, resting comfortably against the soft cushions of the chair. He pushed his glasses up slightly and while waiting for Luna to finish preparing her things he looked out the only window that was in the room. The window was almost as wide as the wall itself but only a foot in height and was just a few inches below the ceiling. With the window that high Harry could see not that much more than the clouds and by looking at them he could tell that rain would come down in just a few hours.

Here we go... Harry thought as he turned his attention back to Luna and saw that she was simply waiting for him.

"I hope Minister Malfoy was not too insistant about his plans for the article," Harry said, remembering what they were both doing there in the first place.

"Actually..." Luna crossed her legs and smiled at Harry. "I have a few plans of my own for the article."

_-----_

"I have something I'd like you to do."

Upon hearing those words, Parvati looked up and across the table. The one sitting there was Hestia Jones, the one in charge of the small rebel group that Parvati belonged to. The words Hestia had just spoken were related to the Resistance, yet it seemed out of place to have that kind of conversation in they sat in Hestia's kitchen eating Chinese takeout with Hestia's three year old daughter Emily.

"What is it?" Parvati asked impatiently.

However, Hestia did not seem to be in such hurry to tell. She simply smiled at Parvati first, then little Emily struggling with the chopsticks. Parvati sighed loudly and leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms.

"What is it?" she repeated with more impatience in her voice.

"I received an owl this morning," Hestia finally told. "As you probably know, Sirius Black has been missing for quite a while."

"Exiled is more like it," Parvati snorted. "A danger to both the Resistance and the Death Eaters."

"Yes, perhaps..." Hestia dropped a piece of deep fried chicken on Emily's plate. The little girl was still struggling with holding her chopsticks correctly. "But the Death Eaters are spending far more resources on him than we are and they have more information about his whereabouts than we. Our spies at the ministry have searched but found nothing and Professor McGonagall is certain that the information about Black is held somewhere else."

"So you want me to break into that place and get it," Parvati concluded and by the look of Hestia's face she knew that she was right. It did not matter to her though, breaking into places was a piece of cake for her nowadays. She had done it a dozen times before and managed to accomplish her mission successfully.

"But this isn't any ordinary place. We are certain that the information goes directly to Lucius Malfoy himself and therefore there is no other place to look than Malfoy Manor. Emily, please don't hold your chopsticks like that... you're giving Parvati the middle finger."

Hestia paused to adjust the chopsticks that her daughter was holding. Parvati took one look at the confused little girl and despite that she kept her face she could not help smiling at Emily on the inside. After Emily had resumed eating, Hestia turned back to Parvati.

"What you're saying is that you want me to break into Malfoy Manor and steal the information about Black," Parvati said. Hestia confirmed with a small nod. "Consider it done."

_-----_

Two pictures, two rolls of parchment, two well wishes and two hours later the interview was finally done. It was not half as bad as Harry had expected it to be. Luna's questions were a little unexpected but a relief to him. She would have left the castle already, if not for the fact that both of them were still standing by the large doors and Harry realizing that the dark clouds he had seen earlier were not there for nothing.

"It looks like it will rain," Luna noted calmly.

Rain was a severe understatement in Harry's mind. A storm was on it's way and in just a few minutes the rain would be pouring down like there was no tomorrow. There would probably be thunder and lightning as well. The horses would flatly refuse go out in the storm even if it was only to Hogsmeade.

"Looks more like a storm," he muttered but Luna did not hear it.

"The horses won't go out," she said and clearly she had been thinking the same thing as Harry had.

But instead of staying where she was, Luna simply pulled the hood of her robe up and then strolled out of the castle. Harry almost dropped his jaw at her carefree ways and immediately ran after her. Where was she going? She had not gone far before he caught up with her and grabbed her arm loosely. Luna turned her head to face him.

At that particular moment the wind chose to blow with a little more force. It was just a little but enough to blow the hood down and make her hair lift up and carried by the wind. It should not have been that big of a deal. He had seen her hair and not found anything eye-catching about it. It was too long, straggly and dirty blonde. But at that moment it was so much more than that. It was soft, waving and seemed to be the only colourful thing that he had seen that grey day, although the logical and unheard part of him knew that it was not. Half of him wondered why he had not seen it before and wanted to just keep staring at it, at her. The other half was acknowledging the fact that if he had been forced to describe it all in one word he would have used two and said "most beautiful".

Harry knew for a fact that his jaw had dropped for real when Luna reached up and closed his mouth by pushing it back up.

"You are staring at me," she informed without any hint of embarrassment.

"I'm... sorry," Harry apologized and let go of Luna's arm.

Whatever confidence he had seemed to have abandoned him and a part of him was almost ashamed of being so mesmerized with such simple thing as a girl's hair. He could almost hear an inner voice laughing at his current state.

"I'll be going then," Luna said casually. "Goodbye."

"Wait!" Harry called out after only one step and Luna turned around to face him again. "You won't make it to Hogsmeade before the rain falls."

"I know," Luna replied. "But the horses won't go out in this weather and I don't mind rain."

"What about your camera?"

Luna looked a little more thoughtful although she did not give him an answer. Harry wondered briefly why he was so insistant and why he even cared about how she got home. It was not just that he suddenly thought of Luna as pretty. There was something about her character and the way she acted around him. She did not behave like others, speak like others and on some level Harry wanted more of that. She was... different.

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind staying for dinner?" he suggested about the same time as the thought crossed his mind. "I mean, it will rain any moment and..."

There was no finish that that "and" because he simply did not know what he could say to convince her. Luna just looked at him closely and at once Harry felt like he was being examined.

"I'd love to," Luna answered after a while. Harry smiled. "What are you having?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer when it occurred to him that he had no idea. Such trivial and simple thing as what he had for dinner was never on his mind and always handled by the servants. He took a few moments to try to come up with an answer, but in the end he just asked Luna instead.

"What would you like to have?"

He lead Luna back inside the castle as he asked the question. Afterwards, he watched her eyes turn slightly dreamy again, as if she was thinking about some place far away. But it did not take long before she looked at him again.

"Meatballs. With mashed potatoes. I think that would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Harry nodded in approval, he liked it even though it was not his favourite. Come to think of it, he did not think he had any favourites when it came to food. But he brushed that thought aside as Luna spoke again.

"Ketchup too perhaps... if you have it," she added.

_So simple?_ Harry thought surprised but he nodded again.

"I'll inform my butler then."

An hour later dinner was served and they sat together on each end of an oval table of dark wood. It was a normal sized one and quite small for being the replacement of the four house tables. Although the staff's table had not been removed yet, the Great Hall felt extremely empty and each sound that was made echeod at least three times.

Not that there was any danger of that happening.

Harry swallowed a mouthful of mashed potatoes and glanced at Luna. She appeared to be playing with her food, rolling the meatball around in both ketchup and mashed potatoes before eating it. He almost caught himself smiling as he watched her, he had not seen anyone do it ever since he was very little. Not even during his first year at Durmstrang did children of his age do it.

But there was little conversation between them. Frankly, Harry had no idea what to say. During the interview their conversation had flowed but only due to the fact that Luna had asked questions. But the interview was over and therefore there was no need for her to ask any questions. Although... it did not mean that he could not.

"May I ask..." Harry started and Luna looked up at him. "...how old you are, Miss Lovegood?"

It was a stupid question, yet the only one that he could think of at that time. There were other things he wanted to know about her, but there was no way he could word those questions in the way he wanted.

"I'm eighteen," Luna told.

"And how long have you been working for The Daily Prophet?"

"A little more than a week. I came here a little less than two weeks ago."

The words "came here" gave Harry the impression that she had come from another country. She was English, he was sure of that, but remembered that like him being English did not mean that one had to grow up and live in England.

"I only lived here until I was ten," Luna suddenly said, as if she had read Harry's mind. "My father and I moved to Sweden."

"So you went to Valhalla?" Harry asked, the first thing that came to mind. When Luna nodded, he continued. "I heard it's a good school."

"It is. I liked it there."

Suddenly it felt safer to talk to Luna, to not having to walk around the issue of whether she had gone to Hogwarts or not. The last thing Harry wanted to hear at the dinner table was how his lord had ruined someone's education and eliminated possible careers by doing away with the old crook Dumbledore. Harry almost felt a smile tug at his lips.

"But now you're back?"

"Yes. But I find things very different from what they were when I left."

"You speak of it as if it's something bad," Harry noted.

He put down his knife and fork on the plate. There was still one or two meatballs to finish but at the moment Harry was much more interested in learning more about Luna and her opinions.

"Perhaps I do," Luna responded calmly. "I can only speak my mind."

Luna put down her fork and took a sip of her water instead of the expensive wine that Bosworth had fetched for her and Harry. Harry did not know if she knew the wine's worth but if she did he doubted that she would drink it. She did not strike as the kind of person who enjoyed things because they were expensive, unlike all the other girls that Harry had come to know in the past.

Suddenly Luna looked up and their eyes happened to meet. It became a battle of wills, the one who did not look away would end up being the victor. One thing Harry had learned at an early age was how much one's eyes could reveal. Bellatrix's stormy blue eyes, Draco's threatening but most of the time competitive grey eyes, Lord Voldemort's dark ones. But Luna, also grey eyed, was far different from any of them. In the candlelight her eyes almost looked silvery and there was a certain calm in them, much like the way she sometimes spoke. At times he had thought her dreamy and out of the world but it was not until staring directly into her eyes that he realized that she was perfectly aware and as sane as he was.

"Then what do you think about the changes?" Harry finally asked.

"I don't understand it at all. Why are we making life more difficult for other wizards?"

Was she trying to be funny? Harry almost laughed at the answer but the tone of her voice made it clear to him that she was perfectly serious. He broke off the staring contest between them when he pushed his chair back and stood up. Luna watched him curiously but did not say a word. Harry smiled at himself and walked over to Luna's end of the table.

"Now that we're finished... let's take a walk."

He did not really know what he suggested it. But at the moment it seemed like a good idea and it would allow some conversation without all the echo in the Great Hall. He offered Luna his hand and she accepted after giving him a long look. They slipped away quietly from the Great Hall without any great knowledge or plans of where they were heading. Their walk was slow but with all the moving staircases, they did not have to walk fast to get anywhere.

"I quite like this," Luna said as the staircase they stood on suddenly made a turn to the left.

"You do?" Harry said, surprised. To him the moving staircases were just another annoyance and just made it ten times easier to get lost.

"You never really know where you'll end up with these," Luna explained and as the staircase stopped, she stepped off it and onto another staircase without any knowledge of where it leads.

Harry followed her although in the back of his mind he was not sure of what was so good about not knowing where one would end up. They continued to walk around, occasionally Luna stopped to look and even chat with the paintings. Harry did not join in, but found it extremely amusing to watch her as she discussed heliopaths with a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"There's so much to see here!"

She had left the portrait with a smile on her face and although Harry was pleased to see her happy, she still puzzled him. What what is with her that made her enjoy the small and unusual things that no one else did? Like Harry, many others would have cursed in annoyance when a staircase moved, ignored the chatter of paintings or frowned at a meal so simple such as meatballs and mashed potatoes with ketchup.

"Let's go this way," Luna suggested, forcing Harry back to reality for a while. She headed towards another staircase, although this one appeared to be one that did not move and was a lot higher than the others. With that, they ended up in another part of Hogwarts that Harry had not yet set foot in.

After a few minutes of walking, both of them stood in the doorway on top of one of the towers. He could tell by the sound of the rain, which was louder and he could hear the raindrops falling against the roof. The lit torches behind them cast enough light for Harry to realize that they had ended up in a classroom but that was about as much as they could tell.

"Lumos..."

The light from the tip of Harry's wand lit up the classroom enough for them to see things better. The shape of the room was round and instead of the regular stonewalls and ceiling, the classroom was covered by a tall glass dome. Fitting for an astronomy classroom, which Harry assumed it was because of all the telescopes that stood in a circle against the glass walls. Next every telescope were wooden chairs with red cushions. In the middle of the classroom was a desk shaped like a thick ring with a chair inside it and a small door so that one could step in and out of the desk. Spotting a candlestick on the desk, Harry walked over there and lit the old candles with a simple fire spell. At once the room lit up and became warm despite the dusty shape it was in and the cold rain dropping down above them.

"I think... I like this room most," Luna said immediately while looking up at the ceiling and watching the raindrops fall down towards them but never ever really reaching them. For a moment, Harry wanted to tell her that he agreed.

She sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the round desk, not even caring about how dirty her clothes were going to get. The servants had not cleaned in the tower yet and Harry doubted that they even knew of this classroom's existence. He sat down next to Luna, who was still looking at the rain through the ceiling.

"This was probably the astronomy classroom," Harry told, fully aware of how stupid it sounded but he had no idea of what else to say.

"It's beautiful," Luna smiled. "I quite like it."

Harry looked up towards the ceiling just as she did and tried desperately to find the same kind of satisfaction in watching the rain as she did. There was no immediate epiphany for him but the more he watched the rain the more he found the sound of it somewhat soothing. He searched his mind for the last time he had simply sat down and listened to the rain but either it was so long ago that he could not remember or it was because he had simply not done it before.

"Do you do this often?" he found himself asking. He did not even have to clarify to make Luna understand what he was asking.

"It's been a while, but yes," she answered. "I like listening to it. During bad summers, it rains a lot in Sweden. So now, it reminds me a little of home."

Home. The word raised an interesting thought in Harry's mind. Where was his home? While he was at Durmstrang he meant the Lestrange residence when he spoke of home. On the other hand, when he was there during the summers it did not quite feel like it. Now neither Durmstrang nor the Lestrange residence felt like home to him.

"What defines home?" he quietly asked himself, although he said it out loud and Luna heard him. She only took a few moments to answer him.

"Home is where heart is."

Somewhere between answering Harry and the silence that came afterwards, Luna slowly leaned her head against his shoulder. Harry looked at her, a little surprised but somehow it felt good to have her rest her head on his shoulder. He could not quite explain it but it made him feel warm despite the weather outside. Somewhere between thinking that and thinking about absolutely nothing, Harry instinctively leaned his head slightly against hers.

And sometime before the rain stopped falling, Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood both fell asleep next to each other.

_-----_

When Harry woke up the next day, he was alone.

He sat up properly, feeling a slight ache in his neck after sleeping against a hard, wooden desk the entire night. Looking up, he saw the all the grey clouds were gone and the sun shone down so strongly on him that he had to squint his eyes to see. Luna was gone, nowhere to be seen. Not even a note had been left behind, although Harry did not know what he could expect her to write on it.

Looking back, the whole night before felt somewhat bizarre. He had been interviewed, somehow found the reporter's hair very pretty and invited her to stay for dinner. Dinner had turned into a walk around the castle, a walk around the castle had turned into falling asleep in the astronomy classroom. Harry had had a girlfriend a few years ago who was a closet reader when it came to bad romance novels. Frankly, this sounded like one of them.

He resisted the urge to laugh at himself as he walked down the stairs. A few of the servants walked pass him and greeted him while he was on his way back to his study but he was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice them. But once he was back in his study, alone with silence and his thoughts, the whole thing was suddenly not so funny anymore.

She had come, spoken, amazed him and now she was gone.

She had left him without an explanation. It was not about why she had gone up and left without letting him now, it was... any kind of explanation, Harry realized. An explanation of how she could be so happy and unusual, of why she enjoyed those little things that no one else did. Perhaps even an explanation of why he had not pushed her away and how they could have been so comfortable to fall asleep next to each other.

How ironic it all was. Luna Lovegood had come to Hogwarts to write and ask questions about him and in the end she had left him with a desire to learn more about her. Picking up the nearest quill, Harry started to write a letter.

_-----_

For some reason, Mr Phillips did not look that happy when he read the article.

Luna crossed her arms, waiting patiently for Mr Phillips to finish reading the article and give his final judgement on it. It was 11 o'clock on Thursday morning, but Luna had found the article somewhat easy to write and therefore managed to finish it several hours before the deadline. Mrs Carter was still at home because of her bad leg and seeing as the Harry Potter interview was bigger than anything else they normally published, Mrs Carter did not have to worry about her absence affecting the newspaper.

Still, Mr Phillips did not look that happy. He was frowning deeply and reading each line of the article slowly and carefully, as if he was suspecting that Luna had left something out. Early in their meeting Mr Phillips had approved of the photograph that Luna had taken on Harry. It was not as professional and good as it would have been if Timmy had actually showed up to work, but it was decent and as long as it was Harry Potter on the picture no one would care if a world-class photographer or a muggle tourist had taken it. It was the article that Mr Phillips was most concerned about and when he finally finished reading it, he looked as if Luna had condemned him to death.

"This is terrible," he finally said.

"Oh," Luna said, slightly taken back by his words. "I'm sorry... but please don't start crying, I don't think it will help."

The last few words made Mr Phillips look more puzzled than condemned but after a while he took off his glasses and sat down behind his desk, looking thoroughly exhausted. It seemed strange to Luna, who had seen Mr Phillips floo into his office dancing out of pure joy because of he expected the Harry Potter interview would make the sales of The Daily Prophet skyrocket.

"There's nothing in here," Mr Phillips sighed, handing the article back to Luna. "It's all about... oh Merlin... how could you do this to me?"

"Those were the questions Mrs Carter had prepared," Luna replied calmly, although that was not entirely true. "I could change it a little if you want... there were some amazing paintings and the chef makes really good Swedish meatballs..."

"No!" Mr Phillips cried out, a sudden look of terror flashing across his eyes. "No meatballs! Just... just... oh Merlin."

Mr Phillips's head fell and his forehead made contact with his desk in a loud THUMP. Luna just watched him curiously as he slowly banged his own head against the desk. Mr Phillips must not like meatballs much. Luna opened her mouth to say something but instead of her voice it was a knock on the window that was heard. Mr Phillips immediately sat up and looked towards the window that was to his left. An owl was patiently waiting outside and Mr Phillips waved his hand lazily towards Luna. She walked over to the window and opened it and the owl immediately flew in and landed on Mr Phillips' desk. Not even bothering to give the owl a treat, Mr Phillips tiredly took the letter and unfolded it.

"To Mr Philander Phillips..." Mr Phillips read in a bored tone. "I would like to express my feeling of gratitude concerning the article written about me... blah blah blah... Please do not mind any curses, hexes or threats from Minister Malfoy. I will personally see to it that he will not stand in the way of the article being published as Miss Lovegood has chosen to write it since I have full confidence in her. Signed... HARRY POTTER?!"

Mr Phillips eyes widened as he reread the letter over and over again. Even Luna looked moderately surprised by the letter. Although there was more to the letter, the words that Mr Phillips had read to her were no doubt the most important ones. While Luna was still amazed by the fact that he had vouched for her, Mr Phillips suddenly lost all signs of tiredness and jumped up on his feet.

"PRESTON!"

A skinny young man, also known as Mr Phillips assistant, stumbled into the office.

"Yes, sir?"

"Get this article to printing, right NOW!" Mr Phillips barked and sent the article flying into Preston's arms, although it hit his face first. Once Preston had taken off, Mr Phillips turned to Luna with a broad smile on his face.

"Young lady... I believe you must have made quite an impression on Mr Potter."


	5. Eiusdem generis

**Redivivus   
Chapter 4: Eiusdem generis**

_A/N: Boy, am I happy to be done with this chapter. There is a scene here that I kept struggling with (I think I wrote 5-6 different drafts? o.O) But it's done now and I'm happy that it is because I've looked forwards to writing the next few chapters. I hope you like this one and thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter! _

* * *

"Now now... if it isn't the great Harry Potter himself. Tell me, what brings you to my humble abode?"

Every word Lucius spoke dripped of false admiration. Lucius knew this and Harry too, who could not help smirking at the older man. He sat down on the couch without receiving an invitation to.

"Just trying to find out why you are so eager to put me in the spotlight," Harry replied confidently. "I am sure that you have other puppets you could use."

"None as efficient as you," Lucius retorted. "But from what I saw the interview cannot have been a complete disaster. Philander Phillips forwarded your letter when I owled him about my... dismay. What is the girl's name again...? Yes, Luna Lovegood. How fitting."

Harry suddenly frowned at the mention of Luna's name. There was something about Lucius saying it that did not sound good. Perhaps because Lucius Malfoy never did something that did not benefit himself and he would never hesitate to use people to achieve what he wanted. His power over Philander Phillips and The Daily Prophet was well known to Harry although it only occurred to him then that power over those two also meant power over Luna.

"Miss Lovegood had a clear understanding of what was to be written, that is all," Harry explained. "And I happened to agree."

For Luna's sake Harry hoped that Lucius could not tell that he was lying. But the older man smirked in a way that revealed that he was very pleased with something. Unknown to Lucius, Harry gripped the arm of the couch with such force that his knuckles nearly turned white.

"I see..." Lucius said slowly and sat down on the chair across from Harry.

_Leave her alone, she has nothing do to with you or your schemes!_ Harry thought furiously and tightened his grip on the arm of the couch.

But he could never say those words to Lucius. Doing that would only make things for the worse. The less Harry said about Luna, the better. He should have never mentioned Luna's name in the letter in the first place. If only he had found some other way for the article to go through without Lucius finding out.

Damn Philander Phillips for forwarding that letter.

"Harry, it's lovely to see you again."

Harry suddenly looked up as two people entered the study and closed the door behind them. One was Narcissa Malfoy, Harry's "aunt" although during his childhood she had been a very distant one. It was only after he became of age that she began to speak to him, since she did not bother herself with any children except for her own. Speaking of her child, Draco stood right behind Narcissa. Harry greeted him with a smile and Draco only rolled his eyes when his mother spoke.

"I can say the same, Mrs Malfoy," Harry replied. He got up and shook Narcissa's hand.

"It is a good thing that you are here," Narcissa said with a smile. "When I heard that you were here I owled the invitation right away."

"Invitation?" Harry repeated dumbly.

"Another ball," Draco explained before any of his parents could with another eyeroll. "Big social event. Very important. Highlight of the year."

"I'm... sure it is," Harry answered.

But his eyes met Draco's and both of them could tell that they were thinking the exact same thing. They would rather be dragged around London by two raging hippogriffs than to attend the ball. Draco had suffered most from it but Harry had attended his fair share of balls as well. The heir of Lord Voldemort never went a week without receiving invitations for something he was obliged to attend.

* * *

The article about Harry Potter and Hogwarts, written by Luna Lovegood, had been published on On September 3rd 1999 in the Mysterious Affairs and Sightings section of The Daily Prophet.

Least to say, the article had become a success. Any news concerning Hogwarts always made The Daily Prophet's sales go up. An article involving Hogwarts and Harry Potter sold out every single issue the day it was published. Several demands for a reprint were owled to Mr Phillips at the end of the day and the next day more of those demands came. Mr Phillips was overjoyed, despite what looked like a threat from Lucius Malfoy. He had scheduled the reprint immediately and only two days afterwards the article was published again and sold out all available issues of The Daily Prophet. Mr Phillips sent an owl to Harry Potter asking if it was possible to do a follow up in a few weeks and then went off to look for a house in Mallorca.

Even Hermione was happy about it. It was not two hours after the newspaper had been printed and owled to the subscribers that Luna received an owl about going to The Burrow and for a Resistance group meeting. The moment she had stepped out of the Weasley's fireplace she had been bombarded by praise by Hermione who was still holding the newspaper in her hand.

"Not a word about his political stands or the Death Eater's cause!" Hermione had said happily. "And you put so much about how he plans to change Hogwarts and all... everyone who has ever gone to Hogwarts will start to hate him for that!"

True, Luna could see what Hermione thought was so good about the article. For the Resistance, it was nothing but good. Generally people had a special place for Hogwarts in their hearts and after reading an article about someone who did nothing but change it people were bound to feel hate. Hate towards anyone associated with You Know Who or the Death Eaters meant good news to the Resistance. But later that night when she sat at home in her own little apartment, she didn't think it was that good of her to make people hate Harry.

But there was not just hate. The other day Mrs Carter had sent her to get some coffee for her at the cafeteria and the girls who worked there simply flocked around her. They had bombarded her with questions about Harry's looks and personal life.

"Is he engaged? Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Does he have close female friends around him?"

"Do you think you can get a bigger copy of the picture in the paper for me?"

Giggles. Giggles, giggles and more giggles.

She had been surprised at how much girls who were a year or two older than her could giggle. She had also slipped away with free coffee since the girls were too busy giggling and talking amongst themselves to take the money.

And people thought that she was strange.

Two weeks later things still had not returned to normal. Mr Phillips was ecstatic over the fact that Harry Potter had agreed to do a follow up and another interview by Luna had been scheduled to take place in another two weeks. Luna was still receiving weird looks from the intern she had met the first day, Marietta Edgecombe, but others told her that it was strictly a matter of jealousy. After all, who had been as lucky Luna to interview Harry Potter and then have the article become so successful?

The only one who treated Luna the same was Mrs Carter. Either Mrs Carter did not care or know about the success of the article, because she never spoke that much of it. Her mind was more occupied with an upcoming ball held by the Malfoys. Apparently the ball was to be the biggest social event of the year and Mr Phillips had already agreed to devoting four extra pages for Mrs Carter's report on the ball. As the only other journalist working in the Mysterious Affairs and Sightings section, Luna had to go as well.

"Perhaps you will meet that nice boy again," Mrs Carter said absentmindedly as she sipped her tea.

Luna did not even have to ask who she was talking about.

* * *

After two glasses of champagne, three conversations that consisted of smiling and discussing how wonderful the ball was, one hour of classical music being played by the live band, Harry Potter was officially bored.

It was more unofficially, actually. Although he was bored out of his mind he was still forced to give people the impression that he enjoyed being there and that he was not an asocial person who wished that he had locked himself up in his study back at Hogwarts. Despite of Draco's attitude towards balls, Harry suspected that even Draco was having more fun than he was. His friend had been on the dance floor for a long time, going from one pretty young lady to another.

Harry brought his third champagne glass to his lips and turned away from Draco to find something else to rest his eyes on. It was not exactly that he was asocial, it was the fact that he wanted to be when it came to this kind of crowd. Death Eater families, rich families, the top of society. Out of all the people here Harry was probably the one who was on top of the hierarchy, even above Lucius. Yet he did not feel as if he fitted in. He did not enjoy talking politics or grand plans for the future. Everyone at the ball had goals, whether they revealed them or not. Harry could guess that most of them desired power, but also fame and fortune. He desired neither and could not help but wishing that he was somewhere else.

"As usual, you're standing here doing nothing but drinking your champagne. Why am I friends with a closet alcoholic?"

Draco walked up to Harry after his fifth dance that evening. Harry cast Draco an irritated look.

"I'm not an alcoholic," he defended himself. "I just have nothing else to do."

"Right," Draco nodded with a smirk. "Of course, I suppose that your bad eyesight made you not see that there are other things to do than to discuss politics with my father... Not to mention a lot of things to look at."

He said the last part with another smirk and looking towards a group of young women standing and talking in a corner. Once they saw that he was looking towards them, they giggled and laughed. After the giggles came blushes and whisperings. Harry just rolled his eyes.

"And I suppose you did?"

He brought the champagne glass up towards his lips again. Draco looked around the ballroom and suddenly caught sight on something interesting again. Although this time it was not someone in his own interest. He turned back to Harry and tried to put on his most casual and indifferent facial expression.

"I think I just saw something... someone new," Draco told.

Draco didn't have to gesture or point. Harry automatically looked in the same direction as Draco did. His eyes drifted across the ballroom and found a group of wrinkly, gossiping old ladies. All of them were over the age of fifty and although some dressed in fashionable gowns and robes, it was clear to Harry that the best years of their lives were as far away as Pluto. Perhaps Draco had had more champagne that he had.

"I know you used to have a thing for older women, but this is just too..." Harry started but was interrupted.

"Not them, you Siberian four eyed idiot!" Draco hissed furiously, referring to the years Harry spent at Durmstrang.

"I'm as English as you are, thank you very much."

Draco rolled his eyes and Harry raised the glass again to finish the little champagne he had left.

"I meant her."

He spoke the last word with such empathises that Harry had to look again. This time he saw it. Saw her. The champagne glass touched his lips but he never drank from it. A million words seemed to rush to his minds, a million thoughts and impulses, yet he found himself unable to act upon them. His lips felt dry. He had not expected to see her there. But there she was, standing not that far from the group of old ladies Harry had seen before.

"Like a schoolboy," Draco snorted when he saw Harry's reaction, although he looked very amused. "Perhaps I should ask her for a dance. She's not as pretty as the others but she'll do."

Draco took a step forwards but Harry quickly stopped him by grabbing his shoulder firmly. Then he shot Draco a glare, shoved the champagne glass into his hand and walked off into Luna's direction before Draco could. He couldn't see it, but once he was a good four feet away an amused smirk formed on Draco's lips.

Once Harry was halfway, he suddenly stopped and wondered what in the name of Merlin he was doing. Why was he going there, what would he do? Those questions, often so simply answered, came up with blank answers in his mind. Just because he saw Luna it did not mean that he had to rush over there right away to say hello. It was not like they were friends.

_Far from friends,_ Harry assured himself. _More like acquaintances. Distant acquaintances. _

But it was too late to turn around, Luna had already caught sight of him and was staring on him openly. Harry managed to force a halfhearted smile to his lips. Deciding that it was too late to turn around, he kept walking towards her.

The close he came to her the more he could tell that there was something about her. She looked different, he could tell. It was her dressrobe, new hairdo and that she was actually there at the ball. The dressrobe she wore was blue and seemed to glimmer slightly. Her hair had probably been professionally put up in a loose bun with a few strands coming down and framing her face. She looked like a princess at the ball. But that was what Harry found wrong. She looked so restrained by all those hairpins in her hair and by the expensive dress that was too fancy and fashionable for her. Although he had not known her for long and was far away from knowing what she was normally like, he felt like she was out of context of the ball. She did not belong there.

Just like him.

"Hi."

"Hello."

Harry could practically feel Draco's smirk burning at the back of his neck. Looking over his shoulder, he shot his best friend a quick but very efficient glare. The next moment Draco wandered off, probably in the search of some pretty girl he could spend the next few hours with. Harry turned back to Luna and when he saw the smile on her lips he felt some of his reluctance to be at the ball fade away.

"I didn't expect to see you here," Harry said.

"Mrs Carter wanted me to come." Luna played with the hem of her sleeve casually. "She likes to write about these things and wanted me and Timmy to come along in case she has too much punch."

"Timmy?"

Luna gestured towards a skinny young man standing far away on the other side of the ballroom. He was holding a camera in his hand although instead of taking pictures he looked like he was trying to make himself as invisible as possible. Harry wondered why although he did not dwell on it for him.

"So he's the photographer?" Harry asked, not really knowing why he felt the need to clarify that. Luna just nodded in response.

"I think he's afraid of the nargles, the decorations here are full of them," Luna stated informatively. "I'm going to head over and see if he is okay."

Before Harry could do or say anything Luna set off towards Timmy. He had barely the time to question what nargles were before he noticed that Luna was about to cross the dance floor instead of walking around it. It all happened much to the horror and the amusement of the crowd, the ones that were dancing kept glaring furiously at her for walking around while the ones who did not stood there and watched with the occasional laugh. But Luna gracefully dodged any dancing couples who twirled around and never once came in contact with the silks and satins that were being worn.

"What does she think she's doing?"

"Who is that girl?"

Harry looked to his left and found that the remarks came from the group of young women that Draco had pointed out to him earlier. They were all looking at Luna with looks of superiority in their face, as if somehow they were better than her for knowing the inconveniency to cross the dance floor like she had. Although at some level Harry agreed, he could not help but to feel angry with them. He chose to pay the young women no attention as he walked past them on his way to Luna and Timmy, much to their disappointment.

Eventually he made his way over to Luna and Timmy, although he had to admit that he had taken much more time than Luna had since he had walked around the dance floor. Luna was saying something to Timmy, although Harry could not hear what. But whatever she said it seemed to do very little to help. Shortly after Harry had arrived, Timmy made some excuse to check on Mrs Carter and left them alone. Harry just gave him a weird look.

"He's always like that," Luna explained casually. "He didn't even want to come along to take your picture."

She then turned around and slipped through an open door. Harry followed her, not really knowing why and where he was going until he was greeted by the cold freshness of the night air. They were on a large and open balcony, empty on people as well as decorations. In daylight Harry knew that the balcony offered an excellent view of the grounds of the Malfoys but it was dark aside and hardly anything could be seen. The quietness and darkness of the balcony contrasted against the bright ballroom and it seemed as if the walls and the glass doors were borders between two different worlds.

Harry walked up next to Luna, looked at her and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"You look different."

"I know. Mrs Carter's daughter insisted on dressing me up. But... I don't really like it."

Luna casually reached both of her hands up and started to pull down the pins in her hair, one by one. In the end she stood there with her hair down and with over a dozen pins in her hand. She smiled again, then turned around and faced the darkness of the night, turning her back to the glitter of the ballroom.

They stood there for a long time, hardly speaking to each other. The orchestra was still playing although Harry could scarcely hear it. Luna stood leaning against the banister of the balcony, staring at the dark sky. There were no stars that night but Luna stared and watched even when Harry wondered what there was to see.

"What are you looking at?" he asked.

"The clouds. Can you see them?"

Harry looked and even though it was dark, he could see the faint outlining of the clouds in the sky. A part of him found it strange for Luna to stare at them with such interest when he or any other person never paid any attention to it.

"At least it's better than looking at what's inside," Harry murmured.

As if it had been on queue, the next moment two girls, one blonde and the other brunette, placed themselves next to the open balcony door. Not knowing that the balcony was not empty the two girls thought that they had finally found a place where they could speak freely to each other. Harry rolled his eyes when he heard them discuss the dressrobes and the couples and occasionally saying how much they wished that Draco Malfoy would dance with them. Out of boredom he did the same as Luna, leaned against the banister and stared at the dark clouds.

"...I heard her name is Luna Lovegood..."

Harry suddenly twitched.

"She's the one who wrote that article in The Daily Prophet! I didn't think she'd look like that!"

There was something about the way the last word was pronounced that made Harry silently clench his fist and listen more carefully to the conversation.

"Yes, she looks quite dreadful, doesn't she? I have a friend who works at The Prophet too and she says that that girl is crazy. Did you see the way she walked across the dance floor before? Typical example of how the uncivilized are trying to worm their way into good society."

"I bet she's a mudblood!"

This was followed by a loud series of laughter from both girls and Harry feeling heat rise to his face while his fingernails dug further into his palm. But upon catching a glance of Luna, the anger he felt turned into something else. She had not moved or even looked over her shoulder but she was no longer looking at the clouds. There was no doubt that she had heard every word that had been said but her face was not red of anger and her hands were relaxed.

The laughter from inside the ballroom died out and after a few moments the silence returned. Harry looked to his left and saw that the two girls who had spoken where gone. Looking back at Luna, he saw that she was now looking at her hands. He could not read the expression on her face.

"Luna...?" Harry said, uncertain of what was going through her head. Then again, he always was.

He watched her and after a few seconds of silence her lips slowly curved into a smile.

"I don't like it either," Luna confessed, in response to what Harry had said earlier. "They whisper and scheme too much. I don't think they like me either. I think they think I'm a bit odd, you know. Back in Valhalla, some people used to call me 'Loony'."

"Loony?" Harry repeated.

Luna just nodded.

"But it's okay," she said and left the subject at that.

The orchestra started to play a more calm and subtle tune. Harry heard Luna hum her own tune along with the violins, cellos and piano that were being played inside the ballroom. He recognized the song that was playing, it had been played at the first ball he had attended at Durmstrang.

"I like this song," Luna suddenly said. Harry looked over his shoulder and saw that a few couples were dancing to the song.

"Would you like to go inside and dance?" Harry asked, struggling a little to get the actual words out of his mouth.

Luna looked into the ballroom and at its people. She gave them a long look, before turning to Harry and giving him a long look as well.

"Would you like to be inside? With them?"

"Not really, but I thought..." Harry started, not knowing how to finish that sentence.

He did not have to give it much thought because the next moment Luna walked over to him and without a word she took his hands and placed them on her waist. Harry's face turned slightly red and he opened his mouth to speak but only some kind of gurgling sound came out. Luna gave him a curious stare but put her hands on his shoulder and rested her own arms against his.

"Then here's fine."

Then slowly, she started to sway back and forth, taking very small steps and bringing Harry with him. Harry looked down at his feet, trying to figure out what kind of dance he was supposed to do but quickly realized that Luna was simply moving around as she pleased. At that point he could not help smiling and whatever embarrassment he felt it soon faded away. The music was quiet and the way he and Luna simply swayed back and forth together made it all very soothing.

He turned his eyes from his feet and looked up. Naturally he looked at Luna's face first and he even admitted to himself how cliché it all sounded when the first thing that caught his attention were Luna's eyes. Perhaps it was because he had never been so close to her before and therefore never really gotten a good look of her eyes, but now that he saw them he felt unwilling to look away. He had known that they were misty, that they sometimes held a weird surprised look. What he did not see until now was some obscure, something beyond confusion. It was as if behind those eyes was a different world. A whole new world full of dreams.

Without thinking about it Harry drew Luna closer to him, as if he was trying to see more and enter the world that she was offering him.

"Harry...?"

"Yes?" he meant to say but it came out as a whisper.

Their faces were close and he bent his head down a little and leaned his forehead against hers. A shiver ran through him as they touched and he became fully aware of how close to each other they really were.

"I..." Luna started but then became quiet again. By then they had both stopped dancing and were standing completely still. Harry, who was still looking into her eyes, started to notice how her eyes changed. It was a very small and subtle change, yet Harry could clearly see a hint of sadness. He wanted to wipe the sadness away from her eyes, to have her smiling and dancing again.

"Harry, I'm..."

CLICK!

Harry almost stumbled back when the strong white light suddenly flashed across the balcony. He squinted his eyes and instinctively tightened his hold on Luna a little. Both of them turned to the source of the flash, a camera in the hands of Timmy. He had an apologetic look on his face.

_'She made me do it!'_ he mouthed silently and pointed at another person who was standing next to him.

Harry saw Luna's eyes widening as she saw Fanny Carter standing there, grinning innocently but armed with a notepad and a Quick-Quotes Quill.

* * *

"From The Daily Prophet: _It has been love at first sight for the young couple!_ From Witch Weekly: _Sources close to the couple reveal that they see each other as soul mates and that a wedding might be on its way._ Luna?!"

Hermione dropped the magazine on the kitchen table and looked at Luna for an explanation. Ron, Cedric, Cho and Neville, who were also present, hoped for Luna's sake that she had one. Hermione had not been happy at all with The Daily Prophet as she had been when Luna had published her article. All sorts of rumours were floating around after the picture of Luna together with Harry Potter had been published in The Daily Prophet, on the first page even. Shortly afterwards Witch Weekly had adopted those rumours as well and now Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood were the talk of the wizarding world. To the media and the part of the public that had good opinions of Harry Potter, it was all good. To the Resistance, it meant disaster.

But Luna simply stood there, in the kitchen of the Burrow, with the same kind of calm and serenity she usually possessed. While Hermione had laid down all kinds of demands of an explanation she had not uttered a word about it yet. The clock kept ticking and the ghoul in the attic dragged its ghostly feet. After a good five minutes of nothing but ticking and dragging, Cho picked up the issue of The Daily Prophet and looked at the article.

"At least it's a nice picture," she said lightly, hoping to break the silence. When neither Luna nor Hermione spoke, Cho turned to Cedric and elbowed him lightly. The latter took the hint quickly and began to speak.

"Look, we know that what the newspapers are saying isn't true and that it's just false gossip," Cedric told Luna although it seemed to serve as a reminder for Hermione as well. "You only met him twice or something. What we have to figure out is how to deal with all of this without letting anyone know that you have connections to the Resistance. The last one who needs to know our secrets is Harry Potter."

Upon the mention of Harry's name Luna looked up at Cedric and spoke for the first time since the group's meeting had opened.

"He wouldn't do that," she spoke clearly. "He's not like that."

"Luna, think about what could happen," Hermione said, in a softer voice than the one she had used before. "If he or someone around him finds out they could force you to drink Veritaserum and you'll be spilling out everything in no time..."

"He wouldn't do that!" Luna suddenly retorted, startling everyone by raising her voice even if it was just a little.

"How do you know? You've only met him twice!"

"And you haven't at all. I believe he wouldn't... or won't."

Before the discussion to escalate further Ron suddenly stood up and walked over to Hermione's side of the table. He gently pulled her up on her feet, then lead her out of the kitchen and upstairs without as much as a word.

"Ron! What are you doing?! We weren't done yet!"

It was only after they were both in Ron's room and the door was properly closed that Ron let go of Hermione and spoke.

"I got this from Lee this morning," he told and put a piece of parchment in Hermione's hands.

Hermione looked at Ron suspiciously, but unfolded the note and began to read. Her eyes widened slightly for each word that she read. When she was finished, she looked at Ron but all thoughts of being annoyed because he had dragged her away were long gone and forgotten.

"So we're all set..." she said slowly. "Now all we have to do is to find someone who's willing to speak."

"I think we both know who has to do it," Ron murmured.

He sat down on his unmade bed, looking very grave and felt so much older than the nineteen years that he really was. Hermione only took a few moments to think, then almost violently shook her head when she realized whom Ron was talking about.

"No, we can't let her do that!" she protested.

"There's no one else. I know it's dangerous... but think about it. If things continue like this it's going to turn out this way sooner or later. The reporters will start digging into her life, they're going to find out. When they do she'll have no time to escape."

"As opposed to this where she reveals herself instead and then escapes?" Hermione snorted and turned away from Ron to look out the window.

"You said it yourself downstairs," Ron reminded. "What if Potter or someone finds out about her? We can't save her then. She's become too involved with him. If she agrees to do this, we could send her to Professor McGonagall and the others before the Death Eaters start to look for her. Or would you rather someone else do it and then put two people on the run instead of one?"

Deep down, beyond the brilliancy of her mind and logic, Hermione's heart screamed no to what Ron was suggesting. But in war no one could afford to act with his or her heart and Hermione's mind was coldly telling her that Ron was right. One in danger was always better than two.

* * *

On. Off.

Light. Dark.

On. Off.

Light. Dark.

Harry sighed and sat up straight, placing his wand back into the pocket of his robe. Normally he was not that much of an impatient person but spending an hour casting Lumos and Nox back and forth out of boredom was something he had never thought he would resort to. He was starting to feel stiff and aching after sitting on a hard wooden bench for so long.

There was not exactly anything to look at either. The hallway where he waited was empty aside from him, the wooden bench and a few small windows. For being a large and impressive from the outside it was unusually empty on the inside. The walls lacked paintings or any decoration, the floors lacked rugs and wherever Harry went his footsteps always echoed. There was furniture but very few of them. The ones that were there, such as the wooden bench, were Spartan and made of uninteresting dark wood. To a normal person the manor would seem cold and unwelcoming. But then again normal people had no business there and it was not meant to be welcoming.

A slow and rumbling sound echoed through the hallway. Harry looked up and started to see the faint outlining of a door on the wall. The louder the sound became, the more visible the wooden door became until it had fully emerged and it all became quiet again. Harry immediately got up.

He could not keep his lord waiting.

The moment he stepped through the door everything began to spin around him. Colours and lights dissolved into a strange mass and then spun around him. Harry closed his eyes, remembering that it was the best way to avoid feeling motion sick at the end of it all. After a while he finally opened his eyes and instead of being surrounded by a spinning tunnel he was now in a library. Books of the Dark Arts were lined up perfectly in the shelves, artefacts and tools were stored in dozens of cabinets. The curtains had been drawn to let in as little light as possible and at the end of the library a few floating candles burned just above a desk.

Harry immediately went down on his knees. He did not say a word and simply waited to be spoken too. It was a rule, never speak unless you were spoken to first.

"Harry."

"My Lord," Harry greeted politely, bending his head down even more so that all he could see was the floor. He heard footsteps behind him and after a while saw a glimpse of dark shoes.

"You need not to kneel like a common rat," Lord Voldemort said once he was next to him. "Rise, my son."

"Yes, sir."

Harry did as he was told and for the first time in over two years saw Lord Voldemort to his face again. His lord, his master and in so many ways his father. He had hardly changed since last time they had seen each other. There were very few grey lines in his dark hair but the sharp features of his face had not changed at all. His eyes, red as blood had somehow become a little more snakelike. The robes he wore were dark and long, almost melting into the darkness.

"You have grown," Voldemort pointed out, recognizing that he and Harry were exactly the same height. "Has Hogwarts been to your liking?"

"Yes, very much," Harry answered sincerely. Voldemort looked very pleased at his answer and the two of them began to walk towards the desk at the end of the library.

"You have questioned why it took so long for me to summon you," Voldemort said and then continued before Harry could protest. "I shall tell you why, Harry."

They reached the desk and Voldemort sat down on the chair behind it. Even though he was sitting down and physically lower than Harry, still Harry felt as if his lord grew tall. Harry resisted the urge to slouch his shoulders a little, they were still hurting after all the waiting and sitting outside in the hallway.

"What do you see?" Voldemort ask and pointing his index finger up.

Harry's eyes followed and he looked up to see the burning candles floating a few feet above their heads. Something inside him was wondering why Lord Voldemort would ask such simple question.

"Burning candles, sir." 

Voldemort smiled, again pleased with Harry's answer. Harry suddenly found himself thinking about Luna and the way she smile. She smiled out of joy, out of laughter. Harry had seen his lord smile before but now he suddenly became aware that he never smiled for the reasons others did. It had never occurred to Harry before, how cold lord Voldemort's smiles were. They froze and shattered.

"The fire requires the candle to keep on burning," Voldemort mused. "Without the candle, the fire cannot burn." He looked into Harry's eyes. "I seek to burn without a candle, to live without dying."

Harry narrowed his eyes, comprehending perfectly what Voldemort had meant but yet something in him had a difficult time to. Immortality was virtually impossible, even for wizards. At least that's what Harry had been taught by teachers and books. But slowly he began to understand. While Lucius Malfoy and the other Death Eaters had the power and ruled over the Ministry, Lord Voldemort spent most of his time in his manor, in this very library that he and Harry was in. Lord Voldemort was not like Lucius Malfoy, he sought something beyond what any other person could ever imagine.

_And he will find it_, a voice in Harry's mind whispered.

"My lord... " Harry started, unsure of what he could say in response. "How would you..."

"I have tried for many years, Harry," Voldemort cut off, relieving him of the burden of forming a good worded question. "Tried many things. But I believe that there is something out there that will help me for certain."

Voldemort smiled again.

"Are you familiar with the Philosopher's Stone?"

* * *

Several hours later, Harry emerged from the library with his head almost spinning from all the things that he had discussed with lord Voldemort. He had hardly the time to recover before the sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway. It took a minute or two before anyone actually came into Harry's sight and he couldn't help letting out a sigh when he saw none other than Lucius Malfoy come walking towards him.

"I did not expect to see you here, Lucius," Harry spoke, frowning.

"I have business with the Dark Lord," Lucius replied but stopped in front of Harry.

He smiled, but it was neither a cold one nor out of joy, but the smile of a man with ambitious plans for himself in mind. Harry rolled his eyes and mentally told himself to stop reflecting on people's smiles before he went mad.

"I hear you had quite fun at the ball."

"Tabloid information, it's false," Harry muttered and his frown deepened. The last one he wanted to bring up the subject of all the rumours flying around was Lucius. He had enough with the owls that came everyday from tabloids asking for more interviews.

"Yes, probably," Lucius agreed but Harry could have sensed the dishonesty in his voice even a continent had laid between them.

"I'll be on my way then," Harry said briefly and then walked past Lucius without bothering to utter a farewell.

He considered himself very lucky that Lucius or anyone else did not stop him. All he had to do now was to get out of the manor and to the carriage that was going to take him back to Hogwarts. His day could still turn out to be fine, or at least okay. But halfway through the hallway Lucius' voice echoed.

"I also bring a message from your mother that you shall be joining all of us for dinner tomorrow. She and Narcissa are looking forward to having a chat with you."

* * *


	6. Ante prandium, post prandium

**Redivivus  
Chapter 5: Ante prandium, post prandium**

**

* * *

**

It was Sunday evening when three Malfoys, one Lestrange and one Potter sat down by the table in the dining hall of Malfoy Manor. As usual, dinner would be excellent. As usual, the one Harry spoke most to was Draco. And as usual, Bellatrix did not waste a moment before getting to the point. Harry had hardly the time to sit down on his chair before Bellatrix turned and spoke to him.

"So what's this I hear about a girl?" she asked suddenly.

Everyone else ceased to speak and instead turned to Harry for an answer. Harry forced a smile while trying to look at puzzled and unknowing as possible. He had known that Bellatrix would bring the subject up sooner or later, although he wished that it had been later for him to come up with a good excuse.

"What girl?"

"Dear, I know that you are perfectly capable of figuring out which girl I'm talking about so please answer my question," Bellatrix retorted and hide a smirk with her wine glass.

"Bella, don't torture the poor boy," Narcissa scolded lightly and then turned to Harry with the same kind of smirk on her painted lips. "Now Harry, there's no point in trying to hide it from us. I saw you with Miss Lovegood at the ball and I believe we have all seen the picture."

Harry looked to Draco for some kind of assistance, but all his friend did was to lean back in his chair and watch Harry with amusement. Harry shot him a glare and promised himself to show Draco the latest hex he had learned after dinner.

"She's just a friend," he murmured and played around with his fork in order to not have to look at Bellatrix or Narcissa.

"Yes dear, but is she not a little more than that?" Bellatrix asked as the house elves brought in the food. "I've heard that Witch Weekly publishes quite amorous stories about you and Miss Lovegood, although I thought I'd ask you about how much truth there is in them."

Harry did not take his eyes or attention away from his fork, yet he was painfully aware of the fact that the current topic was not about to go away for quite a while. With Draco, stories about him in the tabloids were a part of everyday life. With him, everyone in the family made it something to talk about. Lucius, who was sitting at the end of the table, appeared to enjoy watching the whole thing. Like father, like son.

"Well?"

Harry looked up to see dinner perfectly served, yet no one was taking a bite. Instead everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to say something. He dropped the fork and it fell clattering to the floor. A house elf instantly came running, picked up the fork and replaced it with a new one that he quickly put on the table. As the house elf ran out of sight, Harry noticed that no one had moved a muscle over it.

"Well, what?" Harry asked. He wished that everyone would just start eating instead of talking and staring.

"I guess it would be a good match," Narcissa said cheerfully. "I heard that her father is very influential man in Sweden. But of course Harry… I think you could do a little better if you picked another girl here…"

Harry tried to resist rolling his eyes at his aunt.

"Aunt Narcissa, we are not…"

"In every lie contains a bit of truth," Lucius murmured just before he sipped his wine, interrupting Harry. Harry just shot him a quick glare, then turned back to Narcissa again.

"…a couple," he finished. "The press is blowing things out of proportion."

"At least it's good publicity," Draco teased with a smirk. "Not everyone ends up on the front page of Witch Weekly."

"Except you?" Harry mocked.

Draco had not stopped being mentioned in the gossip column of Witch Weekly since he turned fourteen years old. Each week there were rumours of pictures of him with new girls, it was a wonder that he had not run out of girls to be seen with. Harry knew that it was quite the contrary, the more girls Draco was seen with the more girls came throwing themselves at his feet.

"Really Harry, we were talking about you," Bellatrix said from the other side of the table. "I'm actually a bit surprised that you have chosen to let yourself be seen with a girl for the first time. You have been known to be a little shy…"

Holding his hand under the table, Harry made a fist and gritted his teeth.

"I'm. Not. Shy."

"Of course you're not," Bellatrix assured him as if he was six years old.

Harry reached for his goblet and drank a mouthful of his wine. This was going to be an excruciating long evening.

* * *

"Anti-apparational grounds. Figured." 

Parvati rolled her eyes and put out the scanning spell. It was only to be expected, they were entering the grounds of the Minister of Magic after all. Lucius Malfoy would have been an idiot to not put up all kinds of protections around his home. Still, there had not been a mission that Parvati Patil had failed and she did not plan on this being the first one.

Having donned the traditional wizarding robes for the sake of moving around easier, Parvati could not help feeling a little cold. She shivered slightly as a gust of cool wind blew, rustling the leaves of the bushes and the tree she was hiding behind. There were a number of things she could imagine doing on a night like this but if Hestia said that breaking in and finding the Death Eaters' files about Sirius Black, it probably was.

"So… are you going in now?"

The words came from Terry Boot, who stood behind Parvati freezing as much as she did but did a poorer job of hiding it. She had asked him to assist her for the mission and if anything happened to her, report back to Hestia.

"Soon," Parvati replied, looking towards the manor. Light came from most of the windows, it was difficult to tell which part of the house was being used at the time.

"Shouldn't you be wearing an invisibility cloak or something?" Terry questioned curiously.

"I doubt they'd work," Parvati responded and tried to resist rolling her eyes. "Malfoy Manor has wards against invisibility cloaks."

"Oh… but doesn't it ever scare you?" Terry asked and looked towards the manor as well. "I mean, we hear about things you do all the time. Breaking into places, going undercover, fight Death Eaters on a daily… or nightly basis… You're practically a legend."

"Don't be silly," Parvati muttered. She walked right past Terry and to a small bag she had brought earlier. "We were in the same year at Hogwarts."

She opened the bag and started to go through all the things in there. Powders and potions in small vials, gadgets and devices that could come in handy. Parvati picked a few of them and stuffed them in a large, wide belt with pockets that she wore around her waist. At the same time she heard Terry speak to her again. Much to her annoyance, it was with a bit of admiration in his voice.

"Yeah but still… you do more than most people our age in the Resistance. I heard Hestia telling McGonagall that you have become a great soldier and asset. If Padma could see you now, I'm sure she'd be very pr…"

"Padma is dead," Parvati cut off briskly. "She can't see anything."

Terry said nothing but she could feel the weird look he gave in the back of her neck. Sighing, Parvati put down the bag on the ground and grabbed the two broomsticks she had brought with her.

"Hold this," she ordered and left them in Terry's hand. "If I don't come back in an hour, get out of here as soon as you can. Use one of them and smash the other."

Accepting Terry's nervous nod as an answer, Parvati turned around and headed quickly but quietly towards the manor. At first she stayed behind the bushes, moving crouched down along them until she found a small spot where the woods almost met the manor. After checking one last time that she was still unnoticed, Parvati carefully parted a bush and stepped over it, barely making a sound as she treaded out. The grass, evenly trimmed of course, felt soft underneath her as she snuck over to the side of the manor.

Even when she was on her way of committing a crime that could end with her death, Parvati thought to herself that the Malfoys could only have hired the best of the best to take care of their precious grounds.

Still crouched, Parvati pressed herself against the stone exterior of the building. The dark clothes she wore almost made her blend in with the shadows, but she remained in a low position to avoid being seen if anyone happened to look out the windows. Almost lying down on the grass, Parvati quickly observed the windows above her.

_Second floor… all closed_, she thought to herself. _Third floor, one room is lit. Fourth, two lit. Fifth…_

There it was, one window opened by just a small crack. Someone had probably forgotten to close it properly. But one small crack was enough for her.

Parvati reached into one of the pockets on her belt and out of all things she pulled out a pack of gum. Taking a rather small piece she put it in her mouth and started to chew slowly. It was sweet and tasted of strawberries. In the corner of her eye she could still see Terry behind the bushes, looking absolutely clueless about what she was doing. She ignored him, it was not her fault that he had not received the proper information.

The chewing gum finally felt soft in her mouth and she spit it out on her hands. Splitting the soft and chewed gum in four different pieces, she attached each piece to her hands and shoes. An almost laughable thought came to her as she did that, only a few years ago she would have cringed and wrinkled her nose in disgust, a lot like Parvati imagined that Terry was doing right now. It was funny how much one could change.

Once the chewing gun was properly spread out over her hands, Parvati slowly got up on her feet. Standing with the bushes and woods to her back and facing the stonewall right on, she reached up both of her hands and put them against the wall. The gum between her hands and the stone made a quiet, squishing sound before the gum suddenly hardened.

_Trust the Weasley twins to invent something like this,_ Parvati thought and almost smiled to herself.

Her hands now firmly attached to the wall, she lifted herself up from the ground and steadied herself by pulling up her gum covered feet as much as possible and putting them against the wall. They made the same squishing sound before hardening and fastening her feet to the stone. Parvati pulled a little at her right hand and the gum softened again and loosened until she placed her hand on a higher spot.

Repeating the same motions, she climbed up the wall almost like a spider, unnoticed by anyone except for Terry who was still watching her with a half open mouth. She climbed up all the way to the fourth floor, avoided being seen by one of Lucius Malfoy's guards and then diagonally climbed to the window on the fifth floor that was slightly opened. Once she got there, she stopped and carefully pulled the window open without as much as a creak being heard. Releasing her grip on the walls, she slipped into the room of the manor.

Her feet landed on the wooden floor with a squish rather than a large thud thanks to the gum. Parvati pulled out her wand, her senses going on a red alert in case there were any surprises. Not that there was any. The room was dark but she could see that all that was in there was a bed, a wardrobe and a few decorative objects.

_A guestroom, how typical. Must be one of fifty._

"Evanesco," Parvati whispered, flicking her wand and making the gum on her hands and shoes vanish.

Then she approached the door but rather than opening it and heading out to the hallway she reached into her belt pockets again and this time her hand had caught on to another Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes product. Parvati held the Extendable Ear right next to the narrow opening in the door. The string snaked out into the hallway on its own and Parvati held the end close to her ear and tried to make out all the different sounds she heard.

Dessert. Squeaky voices were talking about desert somewhere far away. There were a few dark, grunting voices mumbling about the result of the latest Quidditch game but those were also distant. House elves and guards, but all of them scattered around the lowest floors.

Pulling the Extendable Ear back, she quickly stuffed it in her pocket and pulled out her wand instead. It was well used and tattered and Ollivander would have a heart attack if he saw its condition, but Parvati preferred her old used wand before anything else. A more pessimistic part of her was convinced that a wand, old or new, could not save her in situations where she could not use it.

Like Padma.

Slipping out into the hallway, she was met only by the dim light of burning torches and the eyes of a snake from a painting that was hanging on the wall. Parvati moved on quickly, not even giving the snake in the painting a chance to hiss at her. Her mind briefly flashed back to a few hours earlier, when she had vigorously studied a map of the interior of Malfoy Manor. According to that map Lucius Malfoy's study was on the ground floor but there was also a second study, smaller but probably more personal on the fourth next to the master bedroom. If there was a place where secret reports about Sirius Black would be stored, they were more likely to be there.

Parvati moved across the hallway close to the walls, rushing quickly but at the same time careful to make as little sound as possible. She reached the staircase and rather than going down the normal way, she leaned heavily over the railing first and took a long look to see if there was anyone nearby. When the coast seemed clear, she leaned even more and brought her feet up in the air, rolling over the railing and hanging from it briefly before letting go. The carpet on the floor minimized the sound of her landing to a soft thud. It was hardly noticeable compared to the noise that came from the lower floors but not wanting to risk anything Parvati hurried to the right where the second study was located.

She walked past countless doors and paintings until she reached on at the far end of the corridor. After passing a wide door that probably went to the master bedroom she found herself standing in front of a smaller one, located right where the second study was on the map. The door looked like any other, except something about it screamed, "LOCKED!!" to Parvati. Kicking it open would probably not work, neither would Alohomora.

For the third time that evening, Parvati pulled out another gadget from her belt pocket. This time it was in the form of a dark hairpin. The Weasley twins must have created it after watching a Muggle movie or something because when Parvati held it to the lock on the door, it crawled into the keyhole on it's own. She heard a few clicking sounds, then the door automatically opened for her.

The moment she stepped inside the study she shivered out of cold. The room was not that cold but clearly it was not magically heated like the other rooms in the manor. There was no fire burning in the fireplace either. She noted quickly that there were no windows in the room and that in the case of an emergency she better make a quick run. Parvati closed the door behind her and cut off all the light coming from the hallway, enveloping the study in darkness.

"Lumos…" she murmured as she pulled out her wand.

The tip of her wand emitted a faint glow, which was enough for her to find her way around. For being a second and smaller study the room was not that small. It was about the size of the small apartment that Parvati lived in. Bookshelves were lined up against the walls, containing books about obscure things and most of them Parvati had never even heard about. She traced the line of books with her wand, looked quickly at the titles and concluded that there was nothing relevant to her mission.

Instead she turned around and walked over to the wooden desk at the other end of the room. She opened up the drawers and quickly went through them. Empty parchment sheets, quills, ink, candle wax… all in perfect neat order. But there were no documents, no owls addressed to Lucius Malfoy. Sighing, Parvati shut the drawers and looked around.

_Where would I hide messages that I wouldn't want anyone to read?_

Her eyes turned towards all the bookshelves again and thought that it would take an eternity for her to go through all of them to see if any of them contained valuable information. But it was when she looked from one bookshelf to the other that she caught sight of something else. The fireplace.

She left the desk immediately and bent down on her knees in front of the fireplace. Holding her glowing wand over it, she could see that among the ashes were bits and pieces that could have been parchment that had failed to burn up properly. Gathering as many of them as she could, she held them all in her left hand and used her other hand to tap her wand over them.

"Reparo," she whispered.

The pieces floated up in the air and swirled around quickly in a small circle. Then with a small poof they merged into one small note that dropped back into Parvati's hand.

_There._

She held the tip of her wand closer to the note to read the handwriting on it. To her dismay the writing was only a few sentences short, but the content of it was so much more than that. Her eyes widened as it dawned to her what she had stumbled upon.

"There! There! I saw someone going into the master's study!"

The squeaky voice of a house elf raised the alarm in Parvati and she immediately jumped to her feet. The light spell was put out and the newly restored note tucked safely in her belt pocket. Outside the study she could hear voices, several of them as well as heavy footsteps. A house elf had seen her and warned the guards. Cursing herself for not being more careful, Parvati looked around, hoping to somehow find some kind of emergency exit.

But when none was to be found, she plopped another piece of chewing gum in her mouth.

Seconds later the door to the study opened and both senior Crabbe and Goyle entered with their wands raised. They looked around suspiciously, eyes narrowed and ready to take one whatever enemy who had been stupid enough to break into Malfoy Manor.

The only thing was… there was no one there.

"I thought you said someone was in here," Crabbe hollered at the shaking house elf who stood behind him.

Goyle stepped further into the study, still suspiciously looking from side to side.

"But there was!" the house elf whimpered.

"You stupid…" Crabbe started and raised his wand.

He never got a chance to finish the sentence as the next moment a loud thud was heard. Crabbe turned around, only to notice that Goyle crashing down on the floor as something dark fell on top of him. Parvati looked up, instantly jumped off and Crabbe barely had the time to acknowledge that she was there before she raised her leg and kicked his wand out of his hand. His wand flew several feet away and Parvati raised her own and pointed it at him.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The spell struck Crabbe with full force, even freezing his surprised expression, and he fell backwards to the floor with a thud. The house elf behind him jumped in fright and ran out of sight before Parvati could raise her wand towards her. Wasting no time, Parvati bolted towards the door and at the same time quickly banished the chewing gum off her fingers. She jumped over Crabbe Sr's still body and tumbled out into the corridor.

Just as she was about to turn around and run, she felt the sharp tip of a wand poking into the small of her back.

"Look, what do we have here?"

Parvati flinched. She recognised who it was even without looking.

"Roger Davies," she spat in disgust.

"Drop your wand," Roger ordered, poking his wand further into her back. Frowning, Parvati released her grip on the wand and it fell clatteringly to the floor. "Now that's a nice girl."

"You're wrong about something, you know?" Parvati said stoically.

Roger just laughed at her.

"You Resistance rebels… always trying to convince people that they're on the wrong side! Well, I'm not the one breaking into people's houses and…" He took a glance at the elder Crabbe and Goyle who were still out. "…hexing old defenceless men."

Parvati felt him push the wand harder against her flesh and she only winced slightly, refusing to show any kind of weakness. Suddenly she felt something warm against her waist and only when looking down she realised that it was Roger's hand. He pulled her closer towards him and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Seriously… we have to stop meeting like this," he whispered with a smirk and sending shivers down her body. "Here we are again, you with your Resistance nonsense missions, wanting me to catch you. If you wanted to get my attention you could have just owled me."

Roger's fingers played with the hem of her shirt, teasing and coaxing her by slipping them barely an inch between the fabric and her skin. Parvati stood completely still, not saying anything or her face did not even change to a different expression. She did not even move when she felt Roger's lips brushing her ear.

"Now be a nice girl and tell me what you're doing here."

"See… that's where you're wrong again."

Even though Roger was right behind her Parvati could practically feel his confusion that manifested on his face when she spoke up. If it had not been for the severity of the situation she would have almost enjoyed it.

"I'm not a nice girl."

Parvati brought her head forward slightly, then slammed it with full force into Roger's. Turning around, she raised her right fist and struck it hard against Roger's cheek. Already taken by surprise, he practically stumbled into the wall from the impact of her punch. She brought her leg up and kicked him across his face, sending him falling backwards to the floor.

As he lay there, more bruised than surprised, Parvati walked over to him and scoffed. His wand was lying beside him and she put one foot on its tip.

"Nice girls don't do this, do they?" she teased.

Bending down, she grabbed the other end of the wand and pulled it up as hard as she could. A second later she heard a crack and Roger's wand snapped into two pieces. Parvati dropped the broken wand careless, stood up straight and turned around to retrieve her own wand that was lying just a few feet away.

Her fingers were merely an inch from picking it up when she suddenly felt the world literally turn around and she fell to the floor face first. Groaning, she instinctively rolled over on her back only to see Roger stand behind her. He was grinning at her, the roles had been reversed again.

"Not really, but then again I wouldn't like a goody two shoes either," Roger responded.

Parvati's eyes narrowed and she reached out for her wand but suddenly Roger was next to her, one hand grabbing her throat and the other picking up her wand. He twirled it around with his fingers like it was a mere child's toy, and then threw it aside. Parvati raised her right fist to punch him again but this time he caught her fist in midair.

"C'mon love… fight fair."

"As you wish…" Parvati growled and instead gave him a well-deserved left hook across his face.

The punch was not nearly as powerful as one with her right arm would have been but it was enough to make Roger loosen his grip on her right hand and throat. Taking advantage of it, Parvati pulled at Roger and rose up quickly to headbutt him again on the nose. She felt the pain and dizziness of it but forced herself to rise up and push Roger's hands away from her.

They both stood up, Roger a little slower than Parvati, facing each other and neither with a wand. Parvati caught sight of hers but it was behind Roger. She had to get past him in order to get the wand and to the nearest window to get out of the manor.

"I have to admit… back at Hogwarts, I'd never knew you'd have it in you," Roger revealed, still sounding as if she was a fun pastime.

Parvati did not even bother to answer. She lunged at Roger, throwing one punch at him after the other. He duck and dodged them, but she forced him to retreat back a few feet. Turning around in a circle, she tried to round kick him but he caught her foot easily before it struck. Jumping up, she brought her other leg up and kicked him across his face. Roger lost his grip on her foot and stumbled back, while Parvati fell to the floor. She rolled up on her feet and wasted no time landing another kick right in his chest.

Despite her attacks, all Roger did was to stumble back a little. He was still standing, even though there was a large bruise on his face where Parvati had kicked him.

"I think you've had just about enough fun now," he growled angrily.

"I think not."

Reaching out, Parvati grabbed one of the burning torches hanging off the wall. She swung the torch at Roger and he jumped back out of fear of the fire. Following him, she stepped forwards and swung the torch at him again. This time he blocked her arm abruptly with his own, causing her to accidentally drop the torch on the floor.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion to them. They both saw how the torch fell to the floor, heard the clattering sound and they both jumped back a step when the rug between them suddenly caught on fire. The flames out, creating a small wall of fire that separated Parvati and Roger from each other.

"Where are you going to go now?" Roger teased.

Parvati did not even have to look, she knew that escaping from her part of the corridor would be practically impossible. There were no windows in the study and although she could try the other rooms she had passed, she doubted that she would have the time to try to unlock them all before Roger called for more backup. There was also no telling of when the elder Crabbe and Goyle would wake up in the back. Looking around, Parvati quickly searched for something to use. In the corner of her eye she saw Roger turning around to pick up her wand. Her eyes narrowed and a split second later she was running, taking large strides and then finally throwing herself through the fire.

Her skin burned and stung from the intense heat and she saw nothing but red and orange light. She wanted to let it out in a scream or bite her lip, but her body seemed paralysed and she could not move a muscle. Suddenly she felt a strange coolness to her skin and the next moment crashed right into Roger on the other side of the fire. Her body struck him with full force and sent them both rolling into the wall.

Her mind felt numb and her skin screaming for something to cool it down, Parvati could barely think properly. She shut her eyes tightly and dug her fingernails into something soft that she felt underneath her hands.

_Breathe Parvati, breathe, _she ordered herself.

She took shallow breaths, finding the air a nice and cool distraction from thinking and feeling the heat on her skin. It was not until she opened her eyes that she realised that she was laying on top of Roger. He was lying underneath her, with her wand in his hand and not looking that uncomfortable. At first he just stared at her, but when the confusion wore off it was replaced by a wide grin on his face.

"So you like to be on top, don't you?"

Parvati blinked, stared back at Roger for a few seconds then raised her right hand and punched him one last time. Prying her own wand away from his hands, she forced herself up on her feet. Leaving Roger where he as he was, probably unconscious after all the punches, she slowly started to make her way towards the nearest window.

"Accio broom!" she called out with whatever strength she had left.

The broom she had left with Terry came flying and crashing through a window moments later, shattering the glass and leaving glass splinters in its wake. Catching it, Parvati dragged herself over to the broken window. After kicking it open, she lazily hauled herself up on the broom and flew off into the night.

* * *

"Of course, she'd have to be properly introduced to us… And we must get to meet her parents." 

"I believe her mother died, at least that was what Witch Weekly said."

"Then we'd have to meet her father. Find out what sort of man he is and what kind of family the girl has. Does she have any brothers or sisters?"

"Could we please talk about something else?" Harry muttered for what felt like the fiftieth time that night. By the way everyone kept talking, it would not surprise him if his guess was not that far off.

He had spent most of the evening hiding behind his wine goblet, wishing that Bellatrix, Narcissa and Lucius would just talk about something else. In fact, anything else that did not involve him or Luna would be great. Not that any of them paid any attention to his grumpy complains and Draco was just watching with amusement how his best friend was tortured with embarrasement. Harry had spent one third of the evening begging them to talk about something else, one third suffering in silence and the rest glaring at Draco and wishing that some kind of higher power would create some kind of disaster for him.

Fortunately for Draco, the disaster went to another Malfoy.

Halfway through desert a house elf slowly snuck up to Lucius. After getting Lucius' attention, he was rewarded by being held up in the air by his throat.

"How dare you interrupt…" Lucius started angrily.

But the house elf started to make weird sounds, one that Harry assumed could be heard as words if one listened carefully enough. He shifted in his seat, looked down at the cake in front of him but concentrated fully on trying to hear what the house elf was trying to say to Lucius.

"…mashtah… theres… fire…"

After a while Lucius ruthlessly dropped the house elf on the floor although the look on his face made Harry think that the house elf's interruption was no longer an issue. If Lucius had been angry before, he was furious now and his face had become pale. Then again Lucius was naturally pale, but he seemed at least a few shades paler than usual.

"Lucius, what's wrong?" Narcissa asked curiously.

"Bloody Resistance rats!" Lucius shouted very suddenly and startled his wife. He turned around and striding towards the nearest exit. "Took out Crabbe, Goyle, Davis AND started a fire!"

That was the only thing they could hear him saying, once he was out of the dining room he slammed the door hard behind him although they could still hear distant shouting and swearing. All was quiet for a while, the remaining four in the dining room looking equally confused. Finally Narcissa cleared her throat a little and broke the silence.

"Who wants more cake?"

* * *

Closing the door to the nursery behind her, Hestia breathed a sigh of relief. Children could be a blessing and joy but convincing her young daughter to get some sleep was not exactly Hestia's favourite part of raising a child. But after a lot of fuss, Emily had finally fallen asleep and for now the apartment was quiet. 

On her way to the kitchen, Hestia glanced quickly at the sleeping form in her bedroom through the open door. The other child was resting there, not a child by society's standard nor was it Hestia's, but Parvati was still young and by Hestia's standards she needed to be taken care of sometimes. A smile formed on Hestia's lips as she imagined how Parvati would react to being seen as a child. When Parvati had return to report to Hestia, she was bruised, burnt and exhausted. Overall it was not that serious but Hestia had managed to convince Parvati to stay and get some rest rather than apparating back to her own apartment.

Quietly sneaking past the bedroom, Hestia soon walked into the small kitchen. The lights were on there and the smell of tea was both warm and comforting. Also, sitting by the kitchen table was none other than Professor Minerva McGonagall.

"They're both asleep," Hestia told and sat down on the other side of the table.

"Good," Professor McGonagall replied and sipped her tea. Her cup was almost empty. "Miss Patil came back safely, that is the most important thing. There will be other chances at retrieving the information about Sirius Black."

Hestia nodded slowly in agreement.

"There is just one thing…" she started suddenly. "Parvati didn't get the information we asked for. But she didn't come back empty handed."

Professor McGonagall gave Hestia had curious look. Hestia brought her hand forwards and revealed a small note with singed edges. On the note was a message, written in a thin and crooked handwriting.

_Lucius,  
Our sources were wrong. Flamel no longer has the Philosopher's Stone. He and his wife have been taken care of. We will continue our search.  
- Rodolphus_

_

* * *

_

Author's Notes: I didn't want to spoil the chapter so I put this here in the end instead. I thought that I'd finish this chapter just to let people know that I'm not dead or that I haven't discontinued this fanfic. It turned out that I really enjoyed writing the fight scene between Parvati and Roger and wrote it all in one sitting. To think that originally I was just going to throw in a random Malfoy Guard so make things a little more difficult for Parvati. Also, sorry for the lack of Luna in this chapter but she'll absolutely be in the next one.


	7. Facta, non verba

﻿

**Redivivus**

**Chapter 6: Facta, non verba**

_AN: Apologies for taking such a long time to update. As usual real life has gotten in my way but I decided to sit down and finish this chapter before I could let it sit too long and forget about it. I hope you like it. :) I'm halfway through this story now, only three chapters and an epilogue to go!_

_

* * *

_

It was an uncommonly sunny and warm day for October, as if Mother Nature wanted to give everyone one last warm autumn day before all the rain and cold. Most people were out walking, enjoying the fiery sky and the falling of orange leaves. Yet all the curtains at the Burrow were drawn and shielded its inhabitants from sunlight and curious eyes.

Hermione unfolded a large sheet of parchment, revealing a hand drawn but detailed map. Standing by her side was Ron as always and gathered around the kitchen table stood Luna, Cho, Parvati, Cedric and Neville. They all stared at the map gravely and studied it while Hermione handed out copies of her own notes to each of them. She glanced towards the windows one more time and after seeing that there was no way anyone could eavesdrop or see them, she decided to go ahead with the meeting.

"This is the main entrance and the lobby," she explained, pointing at a rather small area of the map. "We have set up three portkeys on these three places from where we'll each make our way to the main broadcasting room. Ron and I will take this one." She pointed at various spots on the map as she spoke. "Luna, Cedric, you'll take this one. Neville, Parvati, Cho, you three take this one."

"What about Ginny?" Neville asked.

"Not a word to her about this," Ron answered automatically.

Neville gave him an odd look, as if he wanted to say something but was not sure how to. But in the end he decided to keep quiet, the tone Ron had used had signalled the end of that short discussion and perhaps it was better for Ginny to not know anything about this.

"How do we handle staff and witnesses?" Parvati asked. "There'll probably be a few of them left there even though it's Saturday night."

"Stun of petrify them," Hermione answered. "We don't have to hurt anyone..."

"But we will if we have to," Parvati finished for her. Hermione looked like she did not want to but in the end she nodded in agreement.

"Like I said before, our target is the main broadcasting room. We need to secure both floors and buy ourselves enough time to execute the plan. As you all know the plan is to get our message out using WWN. I suggest you all get some rest, we have a lot to do on Saturday. We'll meet at my place at six and go through everything again just to be safe."

"So much for getting this weekend off," Cedric said jokingly.

"You'd just be watching the Quidditch game anyway!" Cho gave him a playful slap on the arm while Parvati studied the map closely and Hermione handed out smaller copies of it to each member of the group.

"I guess the meeting is over then," Parvati said casually and put the smaller map in her pocket. "I'll see you all on Saturday."

She left the kitchen and a few minutes later they all heard the familiar "BOOM" of someone using Floo powder. Shortly afterwards Hermione gathered up all the notes and maps, put them neatly in a folder and headed upstairs. Ron silently watched her leave, not looking away until he no longer could hear her footsteps. After that he turned to the members of the group who were still there. Cedric and Neville were busy discussing something while Cho sat next to them reading a magazine and occasionally contributing to the discussion. With everyone else busy or out of the way, Ron turned to Luna, who was looking out the window and humming a song to herself as if she was unaware of everyone else's presence.

"Luna, could I talk to you for a second?"

* * *

She was staying in Percy's old room, sitting by the desk and writing feverishly on a long scroll. Ron stood by the doorway and decided to stay there and watch her for a while rather than just walking right in. Hermione was practically bent over the desk and her hair, as bushy and wild as usual, was gathered in a messy knot. It was one of her small habits that Ron had noticed years ago. Sometimes when she was stressed she would bite her bottom lip. When she had a sudden case of writer's block she would stare at the parchment for minutes or hours until she figured out what to write. Ron saw it as another example of Hermione's stubbornness. It was as if she was refusing to lose to an empty space on the parchment. 

Things had been somewhat tense between them lately, with Hermione refusing to go with his plan and insisting on letting her own heart rule over her mind. She was more intelligent than him, there was no doubt about that but she was always so clouded by her own habit of thinking that she always knew best. But Ron knew in both his mind and heart that her version of the plan was flawed and if she would not think straight, he would do it for her.

"What are you writing?" he asked casually and sat down on the bed behind her.

"A letter to my parents," Hermione answered without looking up. "It's been a while since I wrote to them and they worry too much when I don't write."

Ron just nodded. He had seen it before. The constant worry his mother would display when one of his brothers were on a mission. It did not matter if owls came regularly and on time, his mother would not or could not stop worrying. It was the same with his father although most of the time he tried to hide it and stay calm. But Ron knew from the way his father absent mindedly stared out the window or accidentally spilled tea on himself that he was just as worried.

He had to admit that he was slightly worried about them himself. Not so much about his elder brothers but more about his parents. They were not young anymore and neither deserved to live in times like these. For a moment he wondered whose parents worried most, Ron's for knowing everything about the danger of being in the Resistance or Hermione's parents for knowing next to nothing.

Hermione finished the letter and got up. Once she moved away from the desk and sat down next to Ron on the bed he saw several ink spots on her fingers. Pulling out his wand, Ron waved it over her hands and performed a simple cleaning spell. Hermione looked at her hands, now completely clean, and then smiled at Ron.

"Thanks."

His ears a little redder than usual, Ron murmured a "You're welcome" and put his wand back into his pocket. They sat together in silence for a while, something that would have been impossible a couple of years ago. Back then they had never been able to stay quiet around each other. It was difficult to imagine that they used to constantly bicker about big and small things and how they had found silence to be something boring and negative. Then again, they did not use to carry around the same burdens and responsibilities that they did now.

"Do you remember that time I got in a fight with Malfoy?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Which time?" Hermione retorted, a smile tugging at her lips.

"The first time. In our first year, when Malfoy was being his usual stupid self."

"That time when he insulted me and you tried to fight him because you hadn't learned hexes yet?" Hermione laughed, the memory coming back to her quickly as if it had been yesterday.

"That was one good fight," Ron said seriously and beamed with pride. Hermione raised one eyebrow at him.

"Ron, you ended up being mauled by Crabbe and Goyle and two months later you were still limping," she reminded.

"Still a good fight."

Laughing, Hermione patted his head as if she was complimenting a small child. Ron caught on to her laughter but then gently took her hand into his own and laced his fingers with hers. The affectionate gesture surprised Hermione and she stared at him somewhat nervously although he did not notice. His conversation with Luna was still fresh in his mind.

"I would do it again, you know," he said quietly, still holding Hermione's hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

"Do what?" Hermione wondered.

"Try to save you. I know I'm not that good at it… I guess I'm just trying to be the knight in shining armour."

It felt a little odd to reveal that but in a way it seemed the right thing to do. Ron was somewhat aware of the fact that she was probably trying to analyze and understand what he had just said or his reasons for saying it, it was Hermione after all. But at the moment he did not need her understanding even though he wanted it.

"Ron, what are you..."

At the same time they both heard a faint "pop" from the next door, signalling Ginny's return and that she was in her room. Ron jumped up from the bed, mumbled something incomprehensible and left straight away. Alone with her thoughts, Hermione waited for his return and mostly an explanation but none came.

* * *

Sticking his hand in his pockets, Harry sighed and left Gringotts. He was relieved to be on his way away from there after spending the last two hours discussing his finances with the goblins. Money was not something Harry had ever been concerned about and he could think of better ways to spend an afternoon than arguing back and forth about which was the best way to invest them. 

As he walked through Diagon Alley, he noticed the abundance of people looking at him and some even dared to stare. No one was foolish or rude enough to point or whisper but it still made Harry feel somewhat uncomfortable. Among Lord Voldemort's followers and their families he was used to being recognised by everyone but the public eye was far greater than that. Ever since the article had been published there was hardly anyone who did not know what he looked like. He was about to fold up the collar of his robe in a futile attempt to hide his face a little when he suddenly caught sight on someone who was not staring at him.

The wild blonde hair was what he saw first and instantly he recognised that it was Luna. She was standing by the owl cages just outside Eeylops Owl Emporium. Her lips were moving, she was talking to someone although as far as Harry could tell she was standing there by herself. Forgetting all about uncomfortable stares, he made his way through the crowd and over to her.

"Hey."

Luna's large eyes turned away from the owl cages and fixed themselves on Harry instead. For some reason, he smiled nervously at her.

"Oh hello, Harry," she greeted calmly although she looked mildly surprised to see him. "How are you?"

"Great, you?" He looked towards the caged owls briefly. "Thinking about getting an owl?"

"Yes, perhaps this one," Luna answered and turned to a snowy white owl. The owl seemed to have lived through better days although her eyes were alert and sharp. "She's been here for quite a while I think... no one seems to want her." She turned back to Harry. "I hope your eyes have been alright."

Harry stared at her blankly.

"My eyes?" he repeated dumbly.

"From the camera flashes," Luna replied. "The Prophet has sent out quite a few photographers to try and find out what you're up to these days. After what happened at the ball and all."

"They're alright," Harry chuckled.

He remembered vaguely how he had been informed by his staff that there was a mob of Daily Prophet reporters waiting outside the Hogwarts grounds for a chance to snap a picture or two of him. Ever since then Harry had used the Floo network to leave Hogwarts, as there were charms against apparation there.

"Good." Luna nodded.

Suddenly hearing his name, Harry looked over his shoulder to see two old witches standing a few yards behind him. The moment they noticed that he was watching them, they ceased their whispering and pretended to admire the owls instead. Sighing, Harry turned back to Luna.

"I hate it when people talk like that," he muttered. To be more specific he hated how people constantly talked about him and Luna. The dinner with the Malfoys had been enough.

"So how are things going at Hogwarts?" Luna asked suddenly, looking genuinely curious rather than wanting to change the subject quickly.

"It's going well I suppose... everyone is still busy cleaning and there are lots of things to do. But I think the astronomy tower has been cleaned, the glass ceiling is much more clear now."

Luna smiled.

"I'd like to go back and see it sometime."

Upon hearing this, Harry felt something inside him jump. He boyishly stuck his hands in his pockets again, attempting to look more casual than he actually was.

"If you don't have anything to do now, you could come back with me to Hogwarts. If you want, that is."

Immediately after speaking he scolded himself. The way he behaved reminded him of an old classmate who during the most awkward teenage years stuttered his way through asking the prettiest girl in school to a ball. Harry had never had that problem and not until now did he understand why his old classmate had been so nervous. He dared to look at Luna's face and felt weight fall off his shoulder when he saw that her smile had widened.

"Yes, I would love to."

* * *

About an hour later Harry and Luna were both holding on to the railing of the staircase, which had suddenly decided to move on its own again and totally disregard the fact that they were going the other way. Harry sighed, seeing as this time the staircase did not seem to be moving in the direction of the astronomy tower. Luna, however, seemed as delighted with Hogwarts as usual. 

"I wish we had these at Valhalla," she said and leaned over the railing to look at the staircases underneath them which were moving around erratically as well.

"It's a miracle people have been able to move around here," Harry remarked as the staircase took a sudden turn and caused him to almost lose his balance. But Luna just smiled.

"What is life without a few odd turns here and there?"

The staircase stopped moving and looking over his shoulder Harry saw that they were actually pretty far from the corridor that led to the astronomy tower. He sighed again and searched his memory for another way to reach the astronomy tower without waiting for the staircases to take them there. Unfortunately he had never found another way and a map of Hogwarts seemed to be nonexistent.

"Let's go," Luna suddenly said and took Harry's hand lightly, causing something inside his stomach to jump slightly. "Let's see what's here instead."

"Don't you want to go to the astronomy tower?" Harry asked.

"Aren't you curious about what we might find this time?"

Remembering that their discovery of the astronomy tower had been accidental and due to the whims of the moving staircases, Harry smiled back her Luna and let himself be led into yet another dark corridor. Somehow, it felt like they were on their way to yet another discovery of something old, dusty and forgotten.

"Mrs Carter and Mr Phillips want to know if we're engaged."

Harry almost stumbled on his own feet.

"En-engaged?" he repeated and stopped. Luna stopped as well and turned around to face him.

"Yes, so that they will have something to write about," she explained calmly in such a clear contrast to the shock and confusion on Harry's face. "It's a shame really, I thought writing for mysterious sightings would be more fun. I've been wanting to write something about heliopaths for a while, I heard they have been sighted again."

"They exist?" Harry asked curiously as they continued to walk on.

"Of course they do," Luna answered without any hint of doubt. "Most people just don't believe in them because they don't believe in anything that they don't see within a five feet range."

She suddenly turned to the right, startling Harry with her sudden turn. When he looked around he saw that she was pushing at a door, trying to get it open. Seeing as the door looked rather heavy and that Luna was not the biggest person, Harry smiled at the sight of her pushing at the door and looking totally convinced that it would open any moment. He walked over to her and with all his strength he pushed at the door. It fell open with a loud BANG and nearly caused both Harry and Luna to fall over.

At first glance the room was just an ordinary classroom, with desks and chairs no different from all the others in the castle. But in the middle of this classroom stood a large mirror with a gold frame, dark from the dust that it had gathered over the years. On the top of the frame was an inscription. Harry tried to read it from where he stood but it was a little too dark. He stepped in front of the mirror and Luna joined him, standing by his side.

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," Harry read out loud, raising his eyebrow at the odd inscription. He tried to relate it to other languages but could not find one that was similar to what he had just read. Then for the first time he looked into the mirror and nearly jumped from what he was seeing.

What he saw in the mirror puzzled him exceedingly. Rather than just reflecting his current state, Luna and their surroundings, the mirror reflected something of great contrast. He was standing in the middle of a field, with grass that was overgrown and wild flowers everywhere. It was the ultimate image of a perfect summer day. The sky was completely blue behind the parting clouds and the sunlight that shone down on him was so strong and warm that he could almost feel it in his face. Harry himself was standing in the middle of the field, wearing the same clothes and physically looking the same as he did now. But there was something different about himself, something that he could not exactly put his finger on.

It took a minute for him to discover that his reflection was actually smiling.

"What is this...?" Harry asked, although he did not expect anyone to answer him. He took a few steps closer to the mirror, attempting to get a better look at this reflection. But it remained the same as what he had seen before, still as puzzling. There he was, in the perfect summer day and smiling. What did it mean?

"Desire," Luna finally said.

Harry turned to her and she pointed at the words on the mirror frame. It took him a second or two to realise it but the Erised was the word desire backwards.

"I show not your face but your hearts desire," she continued by reading the inscription backwards. "Perhaps the mirror shows us things we desire."

"Things we desire?" Harry repeated and chuckled. He thought the idea was laughable considering what he had seen. "That can't be it."

"Why not?" Luna was staring at the mirror as well, just as intensely as Harry had been a few moments ago.

"Because all I see is... sunshine and daises," Harry answered and shook his head lightly. He could still see his reflection, one who stood in a surrounding that seemed so alien to him. His reflection was smiling and practically bathing in the warm sunlight.

"And why is that so wrong?" Luna questioned.

"Because it's ridiculous," Harry retorted. "Everything about this mirror is ridiculous. If it even does what you say it does, it doesn't actually do anything. It can't help people getting what they want, all it does is show it."

Upon hearing his words, Luna cast a wistful look at the mirror and it struck Harry that if it was true, Luna was probably seeing something completely different in her reflection. He wondered briefly what she was seeing.

"Perhaps... what you need is to be shown what it is that you really want," she said quietly. "What if you were mistaken before in knowing what you want? What if you have been fooling or lying to yourself all this time?"

Harry felt himself tense slightly, something he always did when he felt uncomfortable. It was not because of Luna, it was because of the questions she asked and the thoughts that they brought up. He suddenly thought about Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix, the Malfoys. He thought about Lucius Malfoy and his constant political scheming, Bellatrix's devotion to the Dark Lord and finally Lord Voldemort himself and his plans for immortality. A little voice in his head that sounded very similar to Luna's asked him where he fitted into all of this.

"I think we should leave," Harry suggested, his voice colder and a little deeper than usual. The thoughts were making him more uncomfortable and he felt as if someone had placed heavy weights on his shoulders.

But Luna did not move or show any signs of hearing what he had just said. She just stood there, looking at him with those large eyes. Even in her silence Harry almost tell what she wanted. She did not want a direct answer or words from him. The look in her eyes convinced him of that what she really wanted was for him to think and think beyond his usual boundaries.

"I don't want to see what you see," Harry said suddenly without even thinking about it.

"Why not?" Luna questioned. Her voice was still calm while Harry's own voice was shaky as he spoke.

"Because it's too much! I don't want to think about these things! I don't want to question them, question the ones who have raised me! They are what I know!"

"It's not about questioning them Harry, it's about questioning what you know."

"Why should I!" Harry snapped. "Why should I care about finding out more than what I already know?"

Two seconds after he spoke those words he realised that he had just proven Luna's point. She had not said a single word about it, yet Harry knew exactly what she was talking about. His position in life, the adopted son of the Lestranges and most importantly the heir of Lord Voldemort. His part in the giant chess game that was the war between the Death Eaters and the Resistance. His part in everything. The lives torn apart, the families who disappeared... his own biological family was merely one of them.

Suddenly he felt like shutting his eyes tightly, as if it would help him shut his thoughts out. His biological family was of no importance. They were causalities of war, they had simply been stupid enough to make the mistake of trying to fight Lord Voldemort. He had nothing to do with them, with any blood traitors who had gone against Voldemort. They were not his concern, they were not even worth thinking about.

He found himself getting more upset as he kept thinking and his cheeks reddening slightly. At the same time it infuriated him a little to see Luna just standing there and saying nothing, doing nothing. She was calm while others would have cowered in fear over the risk of angering Harry Potter. What was she? How could she be like that, so eager to question him and everything she saw? Why did she insist on making him question himself?

"Why are you like this?" Harry asked but what he really wondered was how she could be this different from anyone or anything else he had ever known.

"Because it's who I am," Luna answered simply. "But I wonder why you are like this."

Unable to find an answer or even wanting to search for one, Harry suddenly felt cold. He took one last, long look at Luna, then turned around and left as quickly as he could.


	8. Patris est filius

**Redivivus  
Chapter 7: Patris est filius**

_Notes: This chapter is finally done... I'd like to express my thanks to people at FictionAlley for helping me out with this chapter. As always, I'd like to say thanks for everyone who has read and reviewed this story. :)_

_LittleZebra333: Not going to bog down the chapter with the translations for the titles here... so I've uploaded the translations at nowings3net/translations3txt (just replace 3 with a dot). It makes me happy that you're interested in knowing what they mean, I've put a lot of thought in them. :)_

_With all this said, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter! wanders off to write the next chapter because she is really excited about it  
_

* * *

Lumos. 

Nox.

Lumos.

Nox.

So there he was again, back in the cold and bare corridor, playing Lumos and Nox while waiting for Lord Voldemort to see him. Only this time Harry was desperately trying to use the same old game to keep himself from thinking rather than saving himself from boredom. The more he thought about things the more questions he got and the less answers he found.

Sighing, Harry put his wand aside on the bench and leaned his head back against the cold and rock hard wall. If he closed his eyes he knew that he would not drift off to sleep. The dark circles under his eyes constantly reminded him that in the past few days he had hardly slept at all. But if he closed his eyes, he knew that all he would see would be Luna's face. He would hear her words, her questions, her voice, even though she was no where near him.

_It's just words,_ Harry tried to convince himself. _Just words.__ They are of no importance. Words have no effect on me._

Perhaps if he repeated that enough times he would actually start to believe it.

A rumbling, echoing sound took Harry's attention away from his thoughts and instead it diverted him to the door that was forming on the wall in front of him. Picking up his wand, Harry got up and walked through the door after it swung open for him. Everything around him spun in a whirlwind of different colours, before fading away and revealing the familiar dark library. It took a moment or two for Harry to locate Lord Voldemort, who was standing by window for once and looking out. Silently, Harry walked a few steps closer to him and bowed.

"Rise, Harry," Voldemort spoke without taking his eyes off whatever he was looking at through the window.

"My lord."

Harry stood up straight and said nothing more. He waited in silence until Voldemort decided that he had spent enough time looking out the window and actually turned to face him. When he did, Harry saw that he was holding a small parcel in his hands. It looked completely normal, wrapped in brown paper and tied together with strings.

"I have something I would like you to do for me," Voldemort explained and offered Harry the parcel. "It's something special that I have prepared myself. Rodolphus will need to use it and someone needs to take it to him in France. I could send it or ask someone else but perhaps it would be safest to give this task to someone I trust."

Harry accepted the parcel with both hands without the slightest sign of wanting to know what was in it.

"As you wish, my lord."

"Good."

Voldemort smiled at him pleasingly first, but his expression changed shortly afterwards. It was after a few seconds that Harry realized that Voldemort was studying him closely. He lowered his eyes to avoid Voldemort's, something he otherwise rarely did.

"What is the matter?" Voldemort asked. "You seem troubled."

"Forgive me, I should not express my emotions so freely," Harry apologized immediately and lowered his face even more.

He suddenly felt like retreating into a defensive mode from being under his lord's watchful eyes. The thought of doing that, even though the thought was his own, angered him slightly. Why should he be defensive around his lord? There was nothing to fear, nothing to retreat from. Voldemort was his lord, his master and in ways even his father. What was there to doubt?

"Something is bothering you. I can tell. Talk to me, son."

Thoughts raced through Harry's mind so fast that he hardly had the time to acknowledge what he was thinking. But what stuck out most was anger at himself for acting so weirdly and a voice in his head shouting at him to not talk of Luna in front of anyone. It angered him more, that for some irrational reason he felt as if revealing her name, talking about her in front of Voldemort was wrong.

Voldemort looked at Harry closely, waiting eagerly for his answer.

"There is a mirror," Harry finally blurted out.

The dark lord simply gave him a curious look.

"A mirror?" he repeated.

"...I found it in the castle," Harry continued. "It does not seem to be an ordinary mirror. It shows things."

Upon hearing the last few words Harry sensed how Voldemort's curiosity grew and saw it by the slight widening of his eyes. Once again Harry avoided looking into them, fearing that the dark lord would sense what was hidden.

"What kind of things, Harry?"

Harry hesitated slightly before he answered.

"...things we want."

After all the silent debating he had done with himself it was not his but Luna's answer that came out of his mouth. How ironic that it came from the very person who had wanted Harry to question Voldemort and now he was using her words to answer to him.

But the answer seemed to be to Voldemort's liking. The dark lord let a smile surface to his lips, indicating that what he had heard was to his satisfaction. As a sign of affection he put his hands, always covered by dark gloves, on Harry's shoulders.

"Now that is interesting indeed... but I fear that I am delaying your leave, especially since you must see Rodolphus as soon as possible. We shall resume this conversation when you return from France."

"Yes, my lord."

Voldemort removed his hands from Harry and the latter bowed once again before taking a few step backwards. An open door magically appeared behind him and he stepped through it. There was the same whirlwind of light and spinning as before and after a few seconds he was back out in the quiet corridor again.

Allowing himself a few seconds to breathe, Harry closed his eyes.

"I'm a fool," he declared quietly.

Whether he was a fool for hiding Luna from Voldemort or revealing the mirror, he did not know.

* * *

By the time Cho and Cedric flooed into the Burrow the rest of the team were already gathered in the sitting room. Upon seeing that Hermione had her arms crossed, Luna drawing swirl patterns on her own hand with a quill and Parvati was looking rather impatient, Cedric smiled sheepishly. 

"Sorry, we're late," he apologized.

"You're not late," Hermione retorted, trying to not sound annoyed. "You're just..."

"Not twenty minutes early?" Ron finished for her and whistled innocently when Hermione shot him a glare.

"We're really sorry if we..." Cedric tried to apologize again.

"It's alright, Cedric." Hermione shook her head and got up from the sofa. "Let's go into the kitchen, the potion is done."

The others got up and followed her into the kitchen. The kitchen smelled like a potions dungeon, filled with fumes from the potion that was brewing on the stove. Hermione walked over to the cauldron, stirred lightly with a wooden spoon and then looked at the others over her shoulder.

"We're going to use Polyjuice Potion for this mission," she explained. "We can't risk anything. Everyone grab a glass or something to drink with."

Everyone looked around for a clean glass, although that task was difficult enough considering that most of the glasses were in the sink along with a pile of unwashed plates and bowls. Looking at the table, Neville spotted three clean coffee mugs. He reached out for one of them but Ron grabbed his arm and stopped him just before he managed to touch the mugs.

"Not those." Ron let go of Neville. "Those are portkeys."

"Oh... sorry."

After a few minutes everyone stood in a circle in the middle of the kitchen, each one with a glass full of yellowy thick liquid. Aside from Hermione and Luna, the rest of the group looked uncertain as they stared into their glasses as if silently debating the subject of adding this potion to the list of ways to commit suicide.

"So... whose hair are we going to use?" Cho asked after a while, breaking the silence.

Seeing it as his cue to act, Ron turned around and picked up a bag that was lying next to the pile of dishes. Setting down his glass for a while, he opened the bag and revealed seven small vials made of glass. Each of the vials contained a single hair, with colours varying from purple to ash blonde.

"Careful, we had a hard time getting these," he said as he handed out a vial to each member of the group.

"How did you get them in the first place?" Cho asked curiously, eyeing the hair strand in her vial. "Just grabbed them off random people?"

"We had one of our contacts in the States owl these to us," Ron explained. He dropped the hair into the glass of Polyjuice Potion Hermione had given to him. "They were taken from muggles."

"Why all the way from the States?" Cedric wondered. "Couldn't we just have picked them off muggles here?"

"We're going to assume their appearances," Hermione answered before Ron could open his mouth. "They will be on the lookout for the people these originally belonged to... a muggle in the States is in a far safer place than a muggle here."

Cedric shrugged, satisfied with the explanation Hermione gave. He dropped his hair into his glass and the others followed his example. As they all stood in a circle and ready to drink the potion, Neville flashed a nervous smile.

"I guess we should say cheers or something."

"Cheers," Ron muttered without any enthusiasm and raised his glass to his lips.

He emptied the contents of the glass in one sweep, nearly choking in the process. With tears almost forming in his eyes and gag reflexes almost kicking in because of the taste he forced himself to swallow.

Seven glasses were set down or dropped on the floor in unison.

None of them let a sound out, but they each felt the twisting and knotting sensations in their stomach as if their bodies were protesting wildly against the effects of the potions. Ron stumbled back against the kitchen counter, Cedric who happened to stand right next to a chair sat down while the others grabbed onto various objects to keep themselves standing. But then as suddenly as the nausea and weakness had come, it disappeared and their bodies grew, changed and transformed until it no longer resembled themselves.

Suddenly feeling the absence of her usual thick hair, Hermione reached up to her head to feel how long her hair was after the transformation. The discovery that it was of varied length came when her fingers made contact with a clean shaven head on one side with shoulder length blonde hair on the other side of her head.

"Wonderful…" she muttered to herself.

She was not the only one who seemed dissatisfied with her transformation. Cedric was desperately trying to gain some control over his new and extremely curly hair that covered his head like a thick bush while Neville poked at his new mohawk curiously. Cho had just discovered a large tattoo of a dragon on her left arm, Ron's flaming red hair had been replaced by dyed blue hair and though Luna still had the same body build, her long blonde hair now had a peach pink colour. Parvati had been the luckiest, aside from lighter skin all she had gained was thick purple streaks in her hair. That and a long tattoo across her arm resembling stitches.

"Ron, where did your contact get these!" Hermione demanded to know. "We all look like we stepped out of a bad Goth makeover!"

"A bad what…?" Cedric repeated, pushing his hair away from his face in order for him to see.

One look exchanged between them told them that they were all thinking the same thing, how surreal it was to look at one face and not recognise it but at the same time knowing exactly who was who. On the other hand, with the distinctive looks they each had it was practically impossible for them to mistake one for the other.

"Look on the bright side," Cho said, half smiling. "Um… the most distinctive we look, the better right? That way they'll be looking for these faces and we look nothing like them."

"True," Hermione sighed. "All right, let's just get going. Remember that when we get there we have to…"

"…call each other by our codenames," Ron finished. "I think we got it by now. Is everyone ready?"

Hermione simply rolled her eyes at Ron and turned to the three coffee mugs that stood on the kitchen counter. The others did the same. Luna and Cedric grabbed one of the mugs, Neville, Parvati and Cho took the second and Ron and Hermione held the third. They all heard a clock strike twelve and with that seven people vanished from the Burrow.

As the clock struck twelve eleven, the front door opened to reveal Ginny.

"I'm home!" she called out.

Kicking her shoes off, she went into the kitchen where she expected to find her brother and his best friend. Instead, she was met by the strange but familiar smell of cabbage and a kitchen empty on people. Ginny eyed the mess in the kitchen suspiciously, counting all the empty glasses that still had traces of a strange liquid in them. Turning around, she promptly headed towards the living room. There she looked at the old grandfather clock for an answer.

The hand with Ron's name was pointing to "Mortal Peril".

"Left behind again," Ginny muttered resentfully to herself.

After all there was no one left to speak to.

* * *

One day, when everything was over and You-Know-Who was gone, Hermione was going to pour all her energy into inventing a better way fro multiple wizards to transport themselves over lengthy distances. 

The disadvantages of floo powder were already well known and well complained about, but if there was anything that was just as bad it was travelling by portkey. Aside from the lack of ash and dust, it was every bit as uncomfortable. Hermione felt both torn apart and pulled together at the same time. She spun in circles with her hand practically attached to the mug she shared with Ron. Disregarding her own discomfort for a moment, Hermione glanced at him and came to the conclusion that he felt no better than she did.

Suddenly Hermione felt something hard against her back, the world went dark and the fact that she seemed to be cramped up next to Ron in a very small space told her that the portkey had worked perfectly fine.

"We're in," Ron murmured, awkwardly trying to back up as far against the wall as possible. Hermione paid no attention to his embarrassment and instead took out an Extendable Ear from her pocket. Getting down on her knees, she carefully poked the thin string through the small opening between the door and the floor. Once she was done she got up on her feet, stood completely still and listened closely for any sounds that came from the corridor.

She had someone talking although the unclearness of the voice indicated that it could be in another room as opposed to out in the corridor. There was the occasional footstep, but none that gave her any alarm.

"I think we're clear," she said, glancing at Ron.

"Let's go then... Queen."

Hermione nodded in agreement, at the same time she couldn't help smiling at his use of her codename. Ron put his hand on the door knob, twisted it open and opened the door quickly. They both squinted as the corridor they stepped into was well lit with walls painted in bright colours, a sharp contrast to the pitch dark broom closet that they had just emerged from.

But their eyes adjusted quickly to the light and Hermione took a quick look around them. There was no one in sight and from what they could hear no one was nearby. While Hermione gathered up the Extendable Ear from the floor, Ron took a look around the corners to see if anyone was coming. After a while he nodded at Hermione.

"We're clear, inform the others."

Pulling out what seemed like a normal fountain ink pen from her pocket, Hermione started to write on the back of her hand.

_We're in. /Queen_

The words on her hand glowed faintly, then the ink quickly disappeared and her hand was clean again. Hermione glanced at Ron, who was still on the lookout for any WWN employees or other people. When she looked at her hand again, words started to appear on her hand as if someone was writing on it. She quickly recognised Cedric's and Parvati's handwritings.

_We're in. /Ace_

_In. /Club_

Two seconds later the words disappeared and Hermione put the pencil back in her pocket. She walked up to Ron.

"We're heading this way," she explained and pointed to their left. "We need to get to the reception first."

Ron nodded. With his wand drawn he started to head to the left. Hermione trailed a little after him, constantly on the lookout in case someone would attack them from behind. It did not take long until they heard voices, as soon as he did Ron held out his arm to stop Hermione from going further. Bringing his index fingers to his lips, Ron backed and pushed Hermione and himself against the wall.

Leaning heavily against the wall, Hermione bent her neck just a little so that she could take a look around the corner without actually revealing herself. The lobby was just ahead and luckily things were not exactly bustling with activity. The receptionist, a young woman a few years older than her, was busy flirting with another employee by the desk. From her hiding place Hermione could see a small map of the WWN station on the wall next to the desk. It looked like any ordinary map, if not for the fact that it had small dots moving around on it.

"This looks like the map Fred and George have," Ron whispered. "The one we used to get out of Hogwarts when..."

He stopped himself in the middle of the sentence, preferring not finish it. Hermione could not blame him. Speaking those words meant remembering and thinking about that event. It was something that Hermione herself avoided doing if possible.

"We need to get it," Hermione whispered back. "I don't think she's seen us on the map, otherwise she'd alerted someone by now."

"What are we waiting for then?"

Ron raised his wand and stepped forward. Hermione followed his example just as the receptionist and her object of affection turned their heads to face them.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

Shouting the spell in unison, they aimed their wands at one each. The spells hit the receptionist and the other employee simultaneously, causing them both to drop to the floor at the same time. Ron and Hermione rushed forward, Ron to check the entrance and other side of the corridor while Hermione headed for the map. She tore it off the wall and observed it quickly. Not that far away from them, the dots named Luna Lovegood and Cedric Diggory were approaching the entrance from another part of the building. On the map of the third floor she saw the three dots of Neville, Cho and Parvati chasing dots representing WWN employees and leaving still and petrified dots in their aftermath. There were still a few walking around on the second floor, especially around the area of the broadcasting room.

"Wow, you guys are fast," Cedric said as he and Luna walked up to Ron and Hermione.

"We didn't end up that far from here," Ron answered. "Any trouble on your side?"

Luna shook her head.

"Nothing. Although we did run into sort of trouble when the portkey took us to the men's bathroom..."

Ron stifled a laughter and Hermione glared at him for finding something funny at a time like this.

"Club, Jack and Diamond are almost done securing the third floor," she informed, adapting to a more serious manner by using the codenames. "We should meet up with them and secure the second floor together, then head for the main broadcasting room..."

She took out her pen again and wrote a short message to Parvati telling her to meet up by the stairs once they were done. As she wrote, she took a quick glance at the map, only to discover a small dot moving towards the entrance from outside.

"Ace, someone's coming!"

Upon hearing Hermione shout, Cedric immediately raised his wand and turned around. At the same moment the front entrance opened to reveal a woman, another WWN employee, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a long memo in the other. She was so caught up in reading the memo that she did not notice the unusual crowd and two other petrified bodies in the lobby until she had entered.

"Who are..." she began.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Cedric called out.

At once the woman's body went rigid before she fell over. The coffee mug dropped to the floor and coffee spilled over the memo she had read.

"Let's go," Ron ordered.

The rest of the group followed him instantly. Hermione walked by his side, constantly looking at the map in order to see if anyone was coming. They met a few more employees on their way to the stairs but with Luna, Ron and Cedric ready to hex them they were taken care of in merely a few seconds. Once they reached the stairs Parvati, Neville and Cho were already there waiting for them. Judging by their looks Parvati had demanded that they keep up with her, since both Cho and Neville were breathing heavily and their cheeks had reddened.

"Third floor's clear," Neville told between all the huffing.

"Good, we have the map," Hermione said. "I don't think the receptionist saw us."

"Immob..."

Hermione turned around to see an elderly man pointing his wand right towards her.

"Protego!" she heard Parvati shout the next moment and with that the spell the man sent was deflected. Waving her wand again, Parvati shouted out another spell and sent the man frozen and still to the floor.

"I didn't even see him coming... I should have kept my eyes on the map," Hermione scolded herself and looked at it again. "There are ten others on this floor, we have to get through all of them to get to the broadcasting room."

Ron snuck a peak of the map over her shoulder.

"Okay, everyone... on three..." he began.

"On three!" Hermione repeated, resisting the urge to shriek his real name. "That's the best strategy you could come up with!"

"It's worked before," Ron shrugged. "Club, Ace, Jack, you take the ones to the left. The rest of us take the ones to the right."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the simple and clear strategy but followed along it anyway. Battle strategy was Ron's stronger side anyway.

The group ran through the corridor together, with Parvati, Cedric and Neville on one side and the rest on the other. Finally the door with the sign "BROADCASTING" was in sight. It happened to be right next a large open area with dozens of desks, where the ten employees they had seen on the map sat and worked.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Neville called out.

Upon hearing him and seeing their co-worker fall over, the rest quickly got up from their seats and either started to run or draw their wands. While Neville, Parvati and Cedric set off after those who had run, leaving Hermione and the others to take care of the rest.

"Protego!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Various objects flew around the office as the remaining WWN employees hid behind their desks and desperately tried to harm their attackers. The Protego spell used by both sides prevented the Petrificus Totalus from affecting. Finally, Ron stood up, took something from his pocket and hurled it towards the WWN employees.

"Get down!" he shouted, throwing himself to the floor.

Hermione, Cho and Luna crouched down immediately. Only moments later there was a burst of coloured light like fireworks, followed by shrieks and attempts to use spells to make it stop. Whatever the WWN employees were trying it did not work, the light and the explosions did not stop until five minutes later when everything had quieted down.

Peering up slowly, Hermione saw that their adversaries were lying on the floor, either unconscious or sleeping. From where she sat she couldn't exactly tell the difference. Nonetheless, she slapped Ron on his arm.

"What was that for!" Ron exclaimed.

"What was that!" she shouted in return. Two minutes later it dawned on her. "...the twins made it."

"At least it worked!"

Ron got up on his feet, extending a hand to Hermione to help her up. She accepted it grudgingly and pulled herself back up on her feet. The sudden sound of footsteps in the distance alerted them and they raised their wands again. But running around the corner were the others, returning from their chase of witnesses.

"We're clear," Parvati confirmed.

Turning to Cho, Hermione gave her a simple look that told her to go ahead. Cho walked over to the door to the broadcasting room and put her hand on the door knob. But its refusal to open confirmed the predictable fact that the door was locked. Rolling her eyes, Cho pointed her wand towards the lock.

"Alohomora!"

Although Cho performed the spell with accuracy and precision, the lock showed no sign of being affected by the spell. Hermione watched Cho frown for a moment, but then the change of expression on her face told her that it was time to step back. Instinctively she pulled Ron and Neville with her as she backed away from Cho and the door.

"Bombarda!" Cho called out, waving her wand with force.

The door suddenly flew open with a blast, the door knob and lock flying off in different directions before the door itself fell over. Hermione ducked the flying door knob, then once the danger was over walked up to Cho. She gave the older girl a thankful smile and then quickly headed inside the room.

The broadcasting room was spacious but lacking any decoration. The only thing that was in the broadcasting room was a large panel of buttons and measure bars. The panel stood against the wall, covering almost every inch of it as it was enormously wide. Sitting on a chair in front of the control panel was a man with dark skin and heavy dreadlocks hanging freely from his head. He was talking enthusiastically into a microphone that was attached to the panel before him.

"This is Lee Jordon from WWN, bring you the best of the today's music! I leave you now with the latest hit from the Weird Sisters!"

They all watched Lee push a few buttons and then the screeching sounds of the Weird Sisters began to play quietly in the background. Lee pushed the red button, ending his own transmission from the studio and spun around in his chair to face the group, not looking surprised at all that they were standing there.

"About time, I was wondering when you guys were coming..." Lee began but then he took a closer look at the group. Two seconds later he burst into hysterical laughter.

Ron slapped himself on the forehead.

"Yes, yes... we know we look ridiculous. And yes, I know you wish that Fred and George could be here so that they could make fun of me for the rest of my life. Now can we get on with what we're supposed to do?"

"The station has been cleared," Hermione informed. "All that's left to do now is to..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Lee cut off. "All for the sake of the cover, I get it." He stood up from the chair and straightened his jacket slightly. Smiling at everyone again, he put his hands in his pockets and waited. "Well, go head."

Cedric raised his wand and aimed it right towards Lee.

"Really sorry about this, mate... Petrificus Totalus!"

Lee's entire body suddenly stiffened, then fell straight to the floor with a loud thud. Cedric winced and lowered his wand.

"That's going to hurt for a week."

"We should have at least put a cushion behind him," Neville added.

He gave the petrified Lee an apologetic look as he dragged his body out of the way. In the mean time Cho walked over to the control panel. She looked over everything carefully, checking each setting before looking at Ron and Hermione with a nod.

"Everything is set. You're ready to go."

She left the control panel and like the others waited for Hermione to take her place. Pulling out a small notebook from her pocket, Hermione took a step forwards to the control panel. At the same time, and to almost everyone else's surprise, Luna suddenly mimicked her actions. Hermione stopped at stared at Luna with a puzzled look on her face. Luna, however, kept walking and once she was there she sat down comfortably in the chair where Lee had previously sat.

"Luna, what are you..." Hermione began.

But her voice faded as someone suddenly pulled at her arm, forcing her to step back and preventing her from going any further. Looking over her shoulder Hermione saw that it was Ron, who was now looking down towards the floor to avoid her gaze.

"Some people might recognize your voice… I… you… I don't want anything to happen to you."

Realizing what was about to happen, Hermione opened her mouth to protest but no words came out. In her mind she knew that Ron was right, but she wanted to protest. It was not right. It was absolutely not right to stand back and let someone else take the fall. But logic and reason sometimes won over fairness and as she was held back by Ron, she was forced to admit to herself that it was better to sacrifice someone who was already in danger, rather than bring another one into the equation. Even if it meant standing back and feeling like a coward.

And over by the control panel, Luna pressed the red button and began to speak.

* * *

Paris was anything but bad. The weather was absolutely wonderful, things were pretty quiet on the work front and there did not seem to be a night without a party or a ball to attend. 

"No wonder you have been staying here for five months," Harry said, settling comfortably into the sofa. "I guess mother's suspicions are not that far off."

Rodolphus Lestrange smiled at Harry from behind the small bar in the corner of the living room. He finished pouring their drinks, and then returned to Harry with the two glasses in his hands. Handing one to Harry, he sipped at his own while he sat down next to him.

"I see Bellatrix has not hesitated to speak ill of me while I'm gone," he scoffed but Harry thought that he did not do that good of a job at looking like he cared. "But I must say, Harry... it is truly wonderful to have you here with me."

Harry crossed his arms but smiled at the middle aged man before him. As usual, he was not late in detecting his adoptive father's true meaning. Rodolphus had a way of charming everyone with his words and most of the time he was good at it, except when it was Harry or Bellatrix he was trying to charm.

"What you really mean is that now that I'm here, you want me to stay until it's time for you to return," Harry replied. "That way you won't have to face mother's wrath all by yourself when we go back."

Rodolphus' face lit up with a knowing smile.

"That's the boy I raised!"

Harry chuckled.

"Sorry, but I was only sent here to deliver that parcel, I have to go back in a week or so."

"That's the boy your mother raised," Rodolphus scoffed. "But it is too bad... you'll miss all the fun."

The parcel Lord Voldemort had given to him lay on the table. Rodolphus took one more sip, then set aside his drink and started to slowly untie the string that bound the parcel together. Harry raised one eyebrow, curious about the last words Rodolphus had said.

"What fun?" he asked.

Again, Rodolphus smiled knowingly. Rather than answering Harry's question he continued to untie the string. After that he started to remove the paper slowly and it did not take a genius to figure out that whatever was in that parcel was something of great importance. Harry leaned back, deciding to wait for the answer to his question. But instead Rodolphus kept unwrapping the parcel and shed the several layers of paper very carefully. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well?"

"It's no use telling you since you won't be here to see it anyway," Rodolphus answered casually. "It's a shame that I can't get my contact to come here earlier, but for the sake of discretion he won't be able to make it here until next Sunday... by then you'll be back in England."

He had finally unwrapped the parcel fully and Harry watched him pick up a small glass vial. Harry almost felt a tinge of disappointment. He had travelled all the way to France just to deliver a vial? But when Harry took a closer look he saw the strange purple liquid that was inside it and it only took him a split second to figure out what it was.

"Poison."

"You have a good eye," Rodolphus complimented. "But it's not just usual poison, you know."

"Then what is it?"

Rodolphus smiled again, something Harry noted that he had done many times during their conversation. Now he definitely knew that whatever Rodolphus had planned it had to be big.

"It's a fine gift fit for Sirius Black."


	9. Bona fide

**Redivivus  
Chapter 8: Bona fide**

_Notes: I would be lying if I said that this wasn't the easiest chapter to write, because this is basically the one I've been looking forwards to writing ever since I came up with the idea for this story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)_

_Speaking of nothing... because it's summer and I have a lot of time on my hands, I made a site for this fanfic. It's up at redivivus&nowings&net (replace the &s with dots) and has character bios, background information, notes and stuff like tht. Just in case you're like me and have way too much time on your hands. ;)_

**&&&**

As Harry stepped out of the Floo station and into Diagon Alley, he instantly knew that something was wrong. Most things were just as usual. All the stores were open, people were walking around, shopping and talking. Diagon Alley was bustling with activity with nothing out of the ordinary. But it was the posters covered every inch of every wall with the text "1000 GALLEON REWARD FOR LUNA LOVEGOOD" that told Harry that something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Spotting a boy in a cap waving newspapers around and shouting out headlines, Harry dropped his trunk immediately and ran over to him. He dug into his pockets for a few coins and gave them quickly to the boy, not even noticing that the amount he had paid was worth the entire stack of newspapers. Forgetting or perhaps even ignoring that he was supposed to get change from the boy, Harry quickly grabbed the latest edition of the Daily Prophet. Bold and black letters shouted out the headline to him.

**AURORS CONTINUE SEARCH FOR LOVEGOOD  
MINISTER MALFOY HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE**

Harry stared at the words in disbelief. What had happened to Luna? Why was there a reward and why were the Aurors after her? What the hell was going on!

Flipping to the middle of the newspaper, he spread it out wide so that he could see everything. Along with a large section of text were pictures of Luna. Harry came to the conclusion that most of the pictures had to be pretty recent, seeing as the majority of them were taken when she was at the Daily Prophet office. Luna's eyes stared back at him and smiled, in one of the pictures she was busy writing and in the other she was quietly observing a plant. Tearing his eyes from the pictures, Harry turned to the article itself.

_Aurors and ministry officials continue to search for Luna Lovegood, the only identifiable member of the Resistance group that infiltrated the WWN station last Saturday._

Suddenly all the bustling sounds of Diagon Alley disappeared and all that was left were heavy silence and the sound of his heart pounding fast. Harry stared at the words with wide eyes, his mind empty and his heart feeling nothing but cold shock. The words seemed to stand out and shout at him.

Aurors. Luna. Member. Resistance. Infiltrated.

He did not know for how long he stood like that, feeling as if time had stopped and all that was left was him and his own feeling of how everything just seemed wrong. Everything seemed heavy and numb at the same time. The words echoed inside his mind. Luna. Resistance. They were repeated over and over again. Each time he heard them he felt the same disbelief as he had done at first.

"Sir? Sir, are you alright?"

Harry looked up from the newspaper to see the boy looking curiously at him. Mumbling an excuse, Harry turned around and walked away. With heavy footsteps he dragged himself to the entrance of the Floo station where he had left his trunk. There he ignored all the curious stares people gave him, sat down on his trunk and opened the middle section of the newspaper again. Once again he tried to read the article, but the words seemed to jumble together in a weird mess when he read, as if he could not concentrate enough for it to make sense. While staring at the article he could only manage to make out bits and pieces of sentences.

_...daughter of a Swedish journalist...__ Philander Phillips, editor of the Daily Prophet... "Disgrace to have had such an employee here, if I had known..." ...message through WWN sent out to all households... Minister Malfoy chose to address the situation this morning with a press conference..._

Skimming a huge part of the article, Harry looked further down on the page to see another article about the press conference with a short summary and actual quote from Lucius Malfoy himself.

_"The incident at the WWN station was caused by the Resistance, whose message is nothing short of a propaganda message broadcasted with the sole intention of provoking the ministry. As of this morning the only one who has been identified is Luna Lovegood. We have made finding Luna Lovegood our top priority and we expect full cooperation from everyone to ensure that this rebel and traitor to our Lord and land will be captured."_

Gone was the hollow numbness that Harry had felt upon first reading the article. In its stead was brewing anger and it took every bit of self-control he had to not tear the newspaper into pieces. Frowning deeply, he grabbed his trunk and forcefully dragged it with him as he headed back inside the Floo station. There he went towards the nearest fireplace, ignoring queues and protests as he pushed himself forward. Once he was standing inside a fireplace, he grabbed a fistful of Floo powder.

"MALFOY MANOR!"

**&&&**

The next thing Harry knew was that he appeared in surrounded by flames in the fireplace inside Lucius Malfoy's private study. He was by no means unnoticed, upon his arrival he saw Lucius and Bellatrix standing by the desk. They appeared to be in the middle of a discussion but both jumped, startled by Harry's sudden and unannounced appearance.

"Harry... are you back already?" Bellatrix asked and started to approach Harry with a smile.

But no smile or greeting ever reached Harry's mouth. His expression was set in stone, he was upset, angry and he demanded some answers. As he stepped out of the fireplace Bellatrix's smile faded and even Lucius appeared to be somewhat surprised over his sudden and unexpected anger. Harry paid no mind to their reactions. He walked straight past Bellatrix and over to Lucius, standing stoically before the older man.

"I demand to know what is going on," Harry said through gritted teeth. "Why have you marked out Luna Lovegood as a traitor?"

"Marked out?" Lucius repeated, his confidence returning to him quickly. "I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about."

"You held a one hour press conference dedicated to it, don't pretend that you don't know a thing about it!" Harry shouted, losing the little control he had over his anger. "I am going to kill you for what you've done!"

Bellatrix suddenly rushed forward, holding Harry back just as he was about to circle the desk and physically attack Lucius. The former struggled against her grip, his anger was so great that he was seriously thinking about pushing his adoptive mother aside just so that he could pummel Lucius with his bare fists.

"Harry, stop, listen!" Bellatrix urged.

"He framed Luna!" Harry yelled. "He put up a reward for..."

"That I did," Lucius replied calmly from his side of the desk. "But frame her? I'm afraid that Miss Lovegood did a pretty good job on that on her own."

Still held back by Bellatrix, Harry suddenly froze and stared at Lucius blankly.

"What are you talking about...?"

"Perhaps it's better to show you rather than tell," Lucius continued. He reached for a small device on his desk, on resembling a small jewellery box. Curving his thin lips into a satisfied smile, he opened the box. The box itself was empty, but once Lucius opened it a familiar voice slipped out.

Luna's voice.

_"...who should we really be fighting? Should we really live in a society where we are unable to express our thoughts because of fear of our lives being taken, our friends and family being harmed? Is blood so important that we use it as an excuse to harm others? Purebloods, muggleborn, halfbloods, we are no different from each other. In the end we are all people, neither superior och inferior in comparison. Are we really living at all if we live fearful of what will happen if we stand up against those who seek to prolong suffering and..."_

Lucius closed the box abruptly and put it aside. Harry continued to stare at it silently.

"A group from the Resistance broke into the WWN station and broadcasted this message," Lucius told. "Unfortunately they hexed every witness so we have had a hard time identifying them, that is, except for Miss Lovegood. I must admit that she must be a very brave young woman to publicly reveal her voice like this, especially considering... your involvement."

Lucius smiled again and Harry felt sick to the stomach by the way he referred to his relationship with Luna. Still, he could not manage to say anything. All that he could do was to stare at the box, remember the words that had come out of it. That had been Luna's voice. Although a part of him wanted to fight it, he felt how reason slowly settled inside his mind, forcing him to think more clearly. He felt how Bellatrix slowly loosened her grip on him but remained standing by his side and with her hand on his shoulder. Meanwhile Lucius continued to ramble.

"I understand you perfectly, Harry," he went on. "You had no way of knowing the girl's true nature and that she was probably using you all along. No doubt did she benefit from your relationship although it is a good thing that this was revealed before anything between you became official. It is most unfortunate that the girl you were so infatuated with turned out to be a rebel rat."

Rebel rat.

That was the last drop.

Wriggling out of Bellatrix's grip, Harry promptly turned around and headed for the door. In the corner of his eye he saw Bellatrix slowly going after him slowly.

"Harry, she is not worth it..." she started.

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS!" Harry shouted, not even bothering to slam the door on his way out.

**&&&**

The whole place was sealed up. From outside the windows were dark and showed no sign of anyone living there. From the inside the building the door was sealed off with a large sign saying "Off Limits, Authorized Ministry Personnel Only". Hit wizards had been there, not entirely unexpected considering that the Ministry had been looking for Luna since the moment that she had broadcasted her speech. At the moment there were still two of them there, standing further down the corridor and interviewing a man who appeared to be the owner of the building.

Harry stopped a few steps away from the door, staring at the sign blankly. The red letters of the sign gave him a feeling of a stern warning, similar to signs put up in Durmstrang in corridors where students were not supposed to go. There was a sudden strange feeling in Harry's stomach, as if he suddenly felt a terrible weight. In his mind, or perhaps his heart, Harry still could not believe what was going on. Everything was just surreal, like someone had trapped him in a nightmare the moment he had flooed back to England. That was why he had to see for himself. Coming here was an attempt to find out that it was all real or just pinch himself hard enough to wake up.

He slowly started to walk up to the door. The wooden floor creaked underneath him and it seemed to take an eternity before he finally reached the door.

"Excuse me... Sir? I am afraid that you can't go any further. This area is off limits."

Turning his head lazily to his right, Harry saw that one of the hit wizards had walked over to him and was attempting to prevent him from going further. But the moment Harry turned to him the expression on the hit wizard's face turned from a look of quiet boredom to shock. His reaction did not surprise Harry, almost wherever he went people recognized his face nowadays.

"I am sure you are perfectly aware of who I am," Harry spoke and reached for the doorknob.

The hit wizard suddenly placed himself between Harry and the door.

"I am terribly sorry, Sir, but only Ministry personnel is allowed in here," he apologized and looked like he was about to start sweating.

"I understand, but we all know under whose power the Ministry is," Harry retorted with the sudden aggression. "Perhaps you would like me to personally ask Lord Voldemort for permission to enter and thus inform him of this conversation?"

Much like Harry predicted, the hit wizard's face turned completely red and he started to sweat. He nervously stepped aside and moved away from Harry.

"Forgive me, of course you may enter... feel free to do whatever you like, Sir."

With that the hit wizard scampered back to his partner and to interviewing the landlord. Harry's hand closed around the doorknob and when it did not open he simply pulled out his wand. Quietly whispering "Alohomora" he pointed his wand at the lock and the door was immediately unlocked.

_Trust the Ministry to use simple locking charms that can be broken by Alohomora,_ Harry thought bitterly as he put his wand back in the pocket of his robe.

He glanced briefly at the "Off Limits" sign again, then turned the doorknob and opened the door to Luna's flat.

The first thing he noticed was the smell of sweets, of all things. A faint scent of fudge lingered in the air, just enough to tease his senses. Harry opened the door fully and stepped inside the dark. The light from the corridor illuminated the hallway enough for Harry to find a lamp and turn it on. Once light flooded into the flat, Harry closed the door behind him, not wanting the hit wizards out in the corridor to bother him.

The flat was interesting, to say the least. It was small, with a combined kitchen and living room. A little further down was a doorway that Harry assumed led to the bedroom. If not for all the distractions around him, Harry might have felt slightly claustrophobic seeing as how used to the large and open room of Hogwarts he was used to. Lucky for him, there were plenty of distractions that made him forget how small the flat was.

Everything about the apartment screamed colours and more colours. Each wall was painted in different strong colours, the only thing in common was that they were strong and vibrant colours. None of those light, pastel or neutral colours that people usually preferred. Not even the furniture was spared from this. They were of different shapes, colours and materials, all spread out in the most illogical way Harry could imagine. There was a red armchair standing almost in front of the stove, a series of purple and yellow pillows lay on the floor in a curvy line from the kitchen to the living room as if to mark out a trail and the only table in the flat appeared to be no more than two feet high.

Feeling utterly confused, Harry just stood there and stared at the pillows. For a while all he could think about was why they were there. The hit wizards always searched a room but tried to leave it in as much of its original state as possible, which meant that Luna had probably placed the pillows there. Why did she do that? Was it to mark some sort of trail?

As if to test his theory Harry walked further, following the pillow trail and ending up in the living room. When the pillow trail ended he was standing by the table, no wiser than he had been a minute ago. Frowning, Harry searched the rest of the room with his eyes, staring at other decorations and objects. Aside from the unusual titles, the round bookshelf position in the centre of the room seemed to be or little importance. Sighing, Harry continued to the bedroom.

The bedroom was much smaller than the other one, as expected. As Harry walked in he accidentally stepped on something soft. At first he thought that it was just a fluffy carpet, but when he looked down he saw that almost the entire floor was covered by a large and thin mattress. Once again Harry failed to grasp the logic of having a large mattress that took up the entire bedroom but at the same time it was thin enough to be considered a thick cover. There was hardly anything else other than that in the bedroom, aside from a flowery lamp hanging from the ceiling and a few pictures again on the wall.

_Pictures._

Harry returned to the living room and the bookshelf. He scanned the lines of book slowly to see if there was one that didn't have a title. It was rather difficult for him to look, seeing as Luna seemed to have some other way of sorting books rather than using the alphabet. After a while, Harry came across a small leather-bound book tucked safely between "The Legend of the Roaring Re'em" and "Jag tror på snorkackor!". He opened it and for once something was exactly like he had thought it would be, it was a photo album.

There were mostly pictures of odd landscapes and creatures that Harry had never seen before. He could tell that they were taken over a span of at least ten to twelve years, judging by how old Luna was in each picture she appeared in. Sometimes there would be a picture of a middle aged man with the same hair colour as Luna and a mild mannered smile. Concluding quickly that it had to be her father, Harry flipped the pages. In his mind he was searching for something, something other than pictures from childhood expeditions and holidays but he was not sure what.

In the end he came to the final page. Upon discovering that it too was full of pictures of yet another exotic location, Harry closed the photo album and put in back in the bookshelf.

_Who am I kidding...?_

What was he doing there? If there had been anything to find in the flat the hit wizards would have found it and taken it already. The odd placement of the furniture, his own lack of understanding of everything that was her... As if not finding anything was not frustrating enough it all reminded him of last time they had spoken. Back then he had not been able to understand her and now he felt like he was no closer.

He did not even know who she was. He, the heir of Voldemort, did not even know that she was a member of the Resistance and had been all along. Was that the sole reason why she had spent time with him? Had she been nothing but a rebel sent to spy on him? He imagined her smile and felt that it was preposterous for him to even think that. But he had heard the broadcast with his own ears. Even Lucius Malfoy would not go so far as to publicly frame someone as a traitor, least of all someone who already known to have connections to Harry.

_Then why...?__ How could this happen?_

Weary of the constant questions in his head, he sank down and sat on one of the pillows. It did not stop more questions from popping up though. What was he going to do now? What he ever see Luna again? What would happen if she was captured? What was that thing in the pillow?

Jumping up on his feet, Harry picked up the pillow he had sat on. He squeezed it in various places, searching for whatever object he had felt when he had sat on it. Finally his hands felt something, something that definitely did not feel like cotton.

"Diffindo!"

Cotton spilled all over the floor as Harry used the spell to cut the pillow in two. But among the small cotton bolls was something thinner and as it sailed to the floor Harry recognized what it was right away.

The picture of the two of them at the ball.

Kneeling down, Harry slowly picked it up. He watched how he and Luna stood half swaying, half dancing and at the same time. Harry ran his hand through his hair, remembering that night with an almost pained expression. Back then the world seemed to have shrunk and they were the only ones in there. He had looked into her eyes, seen the change in them and had heard how Luna was about to tell him something when that photographer and snapped that picture. His eyes drifted to Luna's face, remembering exactly what her silvery eyes had looked like at that moment.

It was only then that he noticed the tiny spot of white on the upper right corner of the photo.

Harry brought the picture closer to his eyes, staring intensely at the white spot. It was nothing more than a dot and its placement could have made anyone mistake it for a star in the sky. He quickly turning the photo over, hoping to find more clues there. But the back of the photo provided him nothing, it was completely blank.

Feeling as if he carried the weight of the ten worlds on his shoulder, Harry got up on his feet again. With the photo still in his hand he started to make his way back to the front door. It was useless, his whole coming here had been useless. Even the carefully hidden picture had made no sense. Perhaps it had been another attempt for him to try to understand Luna. In the end it was the same result that came back to him over and over again. No matter how hard he tried he would not understand her motives, her reasons.

On his way out Harry reached over to the lamp in the kitchen and turned off the lights. As soon as darkness spread through the flat, the tiny white dot on the photo started to glow.

He was about to put it in his pocket when he noticed it. When he looked at the picture again the white spot was the only thing that it could be seen. This was definitely not a star captured by the photo. Harry turned over the picture once again and found himself looking at glowing words. Written with a round and curvy handwriting were the words:

_Have faith in me, Harry._

It had not been a coincidence or an odd quirk to hide the photograph in the pillow. She had had a reason. There was a reason for why she had picked that photograph, written those words that could only be read in the dark and hid it in a pillow. Hit wizards would not bother to look in the pillow and if they or someone else found the picture it would mean nothing to them. People brought light, used bright spells to examine things. No one would examine a photo in the dark.

That picture and those words were meant for his eyes and no one else's. She had known all along what would happen to her. She had known that he would come and look for an explanation, a reason.

Still unable to take his eyes off those words, Harry hardly noticed how his legs gave into the weariness of his body and mind. He slid down and sat on the floor, the wall he leaned against behind the only thing that held him up. The words she had written did not proclaim any innocence, nor was there a rational answer to everything.

Faith was her answer to all his questions.

_...where are you now, Luna?_

He sat there asking himself that for hours. It was yet another question he had and he knew that this one would not be so easily answered.

Unknown to Harry, in every wizarding household and pub people sat quietly amongst themselves and spoke of Luna Lovegood. Her name and picture was everywhere and to the many people who had heard the WWN broadcast her words echoed in their head. Some scoffed, pitying poor Harry Potter for being deceived by such terrible girl. Others, after making sure that they were safe and among friends, smiled and silently raised their glasses for the girl who had dared to speak.

**&&&**

"Sir, an owl from Mrs Lestrange arrived earlier..."

"Leave it," Harry muttered, cutting his butler off as he walked past him briskly and through the gate into Hogwarts. The latter did not seem to comprehend what Harry just said because moments later Harry could hear Bosworth walking just behind him and trying to keep up.

"But Sir, it was sent with a request for an urgent answer!" he protested.

"I said leave it!" Harry snapped angrily.

Bosworth finally took the obvious hint that Harry needed to be left alone and stopped following him. But his absence did little to ease Harry's current emotional state. Figures in painting commented on the expression of his face and other servants who he walked by did not even dare to greet him. Not that any of it mattered to Harry. He marched all the way to the staircases and started to climb them, his mind only focused on getting away from everyone and to the one place he had in mind. Perhaps it was because of luck or coincidence, but the staircases moved and changed just as he stepped up on them, taking him to the right place without any interruption. For a while it seemed as if the stairs moved at his will, the castle finally accepting and obeying its master.

But even the sudden obedience of the staircases did not catch Harry's attention or calm him down. Each step climbing up the staircases was a painful reminder of each step he had walked in Luna's company. The photograph he had found in her flat seemed to burn from his pocket where he had placed it for safekeeping. In his head he could still hear her voice from the recording that Lucius Malfoy had shown him.

_Who should we really be fighting?_

Shaking his head as if trying to get rid of her voice, Harry pushed the heavy door open and stepped into the astronomy tower.

All was quiet, dark and dusty.

Not bothering to light a lamp or dust the area off, Harry sat down on the floor with his back against the circular desk in the middle of the classroom. Physically his body rejoiced upon finally getting some rest after all the hours of wandering he had done. Mentally, Harry could only state that nothing changed when he sat down. The old classroom was exactly as it had been before and his world was still chaotic. Harry shut his eyes for a moment, wanting to shut the world and all its confusion out.

But that single moment grew into two, two into three and it was not until his head fell with a nod that Harry opened his eyes again and realized that he had dozed off. His first thought was to ask himself how long he had been asleep. But that thought was quickly replaced as he noticed something else.

Something had changed.

He felt the chilling night air against his skin and his body felt stiff after sitting in the same position for so long. But most importantly he heard the song.

Harry jumped up on his feet and pulled out his wand automatically. Tracing the origins of the cooling breeze he turned around to see that a door was open on the other side of the classroom. The door swung outwards and although Harry had never opened it before or even noticed it, he could see that it led toward a dark platform. With a tight grip around his wand, Harry headed towards the door.

He stepped outside and saw that he was standing on a balcony. Like the astronomy tower it was circular, made of solid rock with thick stone walls to protect people from falling down. For some reason, his eyes followed the path of the wall until...

Harry nearly dropped his wand.

There on the stone wall sat Luna Lovegood, dangling her legs out in the open air. The wind caught a hold of her hair and robe, making her stand out in the dark looking like a cloud of blonde and blue. Lying next to her was an old but sturdy broomstick, no doubt that was how she had gotten all the way up there. But there she sat high above the ground and looking like she did not possess a single worrying thought about falling off. Her lips were moving and now that Harry was outside he could hear her singing and half humming a slow song in a language he could not recognize.

Harry stood there, feeling almost paralyzed as he watched her. She was sitting with her back to him and so far had shown no evidence of even knowing that he was there. Somewhere in his mind he wondered if she would bother to interrupt her singing even if she had known that he was there. But for the time being he did nothing but watch her, his body unable to move and his eyes unable to look away.

After a while, when the last word of the song faded away, everything became quiet again. Luna did not move from her position and Harry felt frozen to his spot. His conflicting instincts told him to move closer and back away at the same time and his body refused by doing neither. Even his right hand was unable to do anything but loosely holding his wand. Then suddenly Luna turned her head, looked over her shoulder and straight at him. The smile she gave him told him that she had been aware of him standing there all along.

"Hello Harry."

_Hello Harry,_ he repeated to himself, feeling slight disbelief. What kind of greeting was that after everything that had happened?

"Luna..."

"I didn't want to wake you up," she explained, smiling. "You seemed so tired so I just decided to wait here."

At first Harry wondered if he was still asleep and just dreaming this. How could she just sit there and smile and speak as if nothing had happened and everything was alright? Everything was just unreal, it had to be some sort of mistake.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

The expression on Luna's face did not change, she remained just as calm as before.

"I think you already know."

No explanation, no desperate attempt to clear her innocence. The look Luna gave Harry and the sudden serious tone of her voice confirmed everything for him. It had not been a mistake and he was not dreaming. What was going on was completely real with no room for redeeming explanations. It had been her voice, her words, her free will and now it was her lack of regret.

"Then it's true... you are a traitor," Harry concluded solemnly, his voice becoming lower and more bitter.

"Traitor to whom?"

The wind lifted up her hair again as she spoke.

"Traitor to the Ministry, one which I never supported and that no one but themselves had a chance to elect? Or a traitor to Voldemort, who only came to power through fear and death?"

Harry felt how his heart seemed to slam against his ribcage and his face become red in pure anger at her words.

"Stop it!" he yelled, raising his wand and pointing it at her. "Stop saying such things!"

"Why should I?" Luna questioned, not even flinching. "Because things are the way they are and it would be foolish to question things?"

"You are a traitor," Harry repeated. His grip on his wand tightened until his knuckles turned ghostly white. "You are a member of the Resistance, those who cannot accept the new order and continue to oppose Lord Voldemort! It's because of people like you that there is still fighting and..."

"At I believe in my reasons to fight," Luna suddenly cut off, staring right into his eyes without being bothered by the fact that he was pointing his wand at her. "What do you fight for, Harry? The respect of other Death Eaters? To secure your own fortune by supporting Voldemort?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer but his throat was dry and his mind empty on answers. There was not a single reason he could give her, not one that he could consider valid. He struggled to come up with one and realized his defeat when he knew that he could not come up with a reason unless he had time to think about it first. There was no reason, no purpose at all. Luna casually swung her legs over and jumped down to stand on the balcony.

"We all have our reasons for doing this," she continued. "A reason for fighting, a reason for our actions. Do you know what yours is, Harry? Do you believe in them so much that you would do anything for them?"

Luna walked across the balcony and towards Harry as she spoke. In the end she was standing just a few feet away from him with the tip of his wand just an inch from her face. Still, she stared at him relentlessly and with resolve.

"If I was your enemy, would you hesitate to use your wand now and kill me?"

Upon hearing her words Harry's eyes widened. In his mind he saw what would happen if he came down to it. His wand raised, Luna standing there and with a flash of green light it would all be gone. It would be over. Seeing all of that, Harry immediately lowered his wand.

"Tell me one thing..." he whispered, feeling tired and unable to speak loudly. "Why... Did you seek me out only because you are in the Resistance?"

Luna smiled.

"I never sought you out. We met, perhaps by fate or chance. I'm not sure which one yet."

Her arm moved and Harry saw that she was pulling out something from her pocket. It turned out to be an old bit of parchment, wrinkled and yellowed after being used in all its years. Luna unfolded it and revealed what looked like a map with dots moving all around. Harry leaned in closer and saw that each dot had a name to them. He quickly recognized the names of his servants, the shapes of the rooms and realized that this was a map of Hogwarts.

"This belongs to two people in the Resistance," Luna explained. "They acquired it while they were at Hogwarts. It shows the entire castle and everyone inside it."

Harry stared at Luna and the map blankly, unsure of what to say.

"Can you find the room with the mirror?" Luna asked.

Harry's eyes wandering along the map. It took him a while but eventually he caught sight of a familiar corridor and followed it to the room where he and Luna had found the strange mirror. On the map there was nothing special marking out that classroom, except for one small black dot.

"...Lord Voldemort?" Harry whispered, reading the name again just to make sure that he had not misread it. Once he had read it for the fifth time he knew that he was not imagining it. But it was all so strange, why was Lord Voldemort in the classroom, or even at Hogwarts? He rarely left his own mansion, he never sought out people because they simply came to him when he called. What was left of his logic wanted to scream and shout. First Luna had turned out to be in the Resistance and on a wanted poster, now Lord Voldemort was at Hogwarts and standing in an empty classroom without Harry even knowing about it.

"That map never lies," Luna said, folded it again and put it back in her pocket. "I should tell you... I wasn't the first one who saw it." Harry's eyes widened. "The Resistance are on their way here as we speak... I came to warn you."

Harry's body tensed upon hearing her words. The Resistance was coming for Lord Voldemort. Again he was torn by two conflicting desires, one to run down and warn Lord Voldemort and the other to just stay on the balcony and find out what was really going on. But despite all of this, there was only one thing he could say. He looked up just in time to see that Luna had walked away from him and was picking up her broomstick from the floor.

"I have to go now, I'm supposed to be in hiding from the Ministry," Luna said calmly.

"Why did you tell me this?" Harry wondered. "You are a part of the Resistance, aren't you betraying them by doing so?"

Up until now, Harry could never understand why Luna smiled. He could most certainly not understand how she could have risked everything to come here just to warn him and it had been a mystery as to why she had been able to stay so calm during all this time. But then her answer came and the world began to make a little more sense.

"Because I believe in you."

With that, she kicked off the ground and flew away into the quiet night.


	10. Alis volat propriis

**Redivivus  
Chapter 9: Alis volat propriis**

_Notes: Hoping someone's still reading this and that not too many H/L-shippers have been turned off by HBP, personally I'm just more convinced. This is the last chapter, followed by an epilogue which will be up very soon. More author's notes there because I love to ramble.  
_

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* * *

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Harry's mind was in a complete blur as he raced down the stairs. After Luna had flown off he had stood unmoving on the balcony for a few minutes, his mind blank after what was happened. But reality and the whole situation had soon come back to him and before Harry knew it he had bolted out of the astronomy tower. The Resistance was coming, they could be there any moment. And Lord Voldemort, according to that odd map, was in Hogwarts...

_It doesn't matter what Luna says... I can't let them harm Lord Voldemort._

Thinking about Luna brought a wave of sorrow to him. She had sealed her fate the moment she had joined the Resistance and taken part in that broadcasting. There was no return for her, no pardon. Yet her words rang in Harry's ear, reminding him how that she was Luna Lovegood, not a Resistance rat. Her words was what separated her from the countless and nameless Resistance members that Death Eaters were ordered to hunt down. Her words, her smile, her voice, her entire being was what separated her from everyone else to Harry.

He knew now that he would never be able to bring himself to harm her or let anyone else do it.

She was the one battle he had lost.

The one battle he felt that he did not want to win.

Finally reaching the corridor, Harry lunged and pushed the door to the empty classroom. The door opened with a slow creak, revealing burning torches put up along the walls and the enormous gold frame of the mirror reflecting the light from the fires. Harry looked up and saw the shape of a cloaked man, his face hidden by shadows.

"My lord."

Harry fell to his knees instinctively as he had always done but a voice in his head questioned why he was kneeling at all. Luna's face came to mind briefly, as did the memory of him being told by Bellatrix for the first time how his real parents had died. He had been seven years old, Rodolphus was carrying out yet another order and Harry had asked why Draco looked so much like his mother and father and Harry didn't...

"Stand up, Harry."

The suddenness of Lord Voldemort's voice brought Harry back to the present. He stood up and raised his eyes to look up. Lord Voldemort had not moved from his position, he was still standing in front of the mirror and staring back at his reflection. At least that was what Harry saw, he assumed that Lord Voldemort was probably seeing something completely different rather than just a plain reflection.

_Just like I did,_ Harry thought to himself.

Again, he could not keep his thoughts from wandering and when they at last settled it was on yet another memory. The memory of seeing his reflection standing in the strong sunlight and feeling a sense of peace and tranquillity. He wondered if he had come across the mirror as a seven year old and after his conversation with Bellatrix, would he have seen his parents? At that time he was a foolish and naive child who, despite loving Bellatrix and Rodolphus, felt curiosity when thinking about the two people who had brought him into this world.

What did they look like?

Did they love him?

How old had they been when they had... been killed?

"Harry!"

Shaking himself out of his thoughts again, Harry found the Dark Lord's eyes on him, looking less than pleased.

"What is the matter with you?" Lord Voldemort asked, his voice not as calm as Harry was used to hearing.

"Forgive me, my lord," Harry apologized. "I was... lost in thought."

Lord Voldemort scoffed and then turned to the mirror again. Harry took a step forwards and placed himself just a few feet behind his father and mother's murderer.

Blood rushed to his cheeks, yet Harry felt cold as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over him. He glanced at Lord Voldemort quickly, but the latter seemed too occupied with looking at the mirror to even notice the sudden change in Harry's face. Diverting his eyes to the floor in case Lord Voldemort would decide to look at him, Harry quietly scolded himself for even thinking the thought.

_Murderer, Lord Voldemort is not a murderer. My parents are blood traitors, they were foolish to stand up against Lord Voldemort for such a stupid cause. Blood traitors, blood traitors. Nothing else. Nothing more._

"This is the mirror you were talking about?" Lord Voldemort spoke. His voice had regained its usual calm.

"Yes, sir."

"It shows one's hearts true desire?"

"Yes, sir."

There was a moment of silence, then another scoff from Lord Voldemort.

"Typical of Dumbledore to use this kind of contraption. But I will not be defeated, this mirror holds the key to the Philosopher's Stone, I know it."

The name "Dumbledore" reminded Harry why he had rushed to the empty classroom and Lord Voldemort in the first place.

"My lord, the Resistance is coming," Harry warned. "They gained knowledge of your whereabouts somehow and they are coming here as we speak."

Rather than feeling the slightest bit of alarm upon hearing that a small army coming to destroy him, Lord Voldemort just smiled as if Harry had just told him a witty joke. He finally turned to Harry and put a gloved hand on his shoulder.

"The Resistance, you say? Let them come if that is what they want... I will crush them all like flies. But we have more important matters at hand, Harry."

Harry felt Lord Voldemort's hand grip his shoulder tightly and in the blink of an eye he was pulled to stand in front of the mirror with Lord Voldemort standing behind him. Looking straight ahead, he stared right into his own confused and lost eyes.

"Tell me what you see, my son," Lord Voldemort urged.

The reflection changed before Harry as if it was done on command. The dark and shadowed interior of the classroom disappeared and in its place was the field of wild flowers and green grass. Everything that was dark was gone and replaced by the blue sky and the sun shining down so strong that Harry's reflection had to squint his eyes. Harry himself could almost feel the warmth of the sun on his skin, the serenity of the scene and smell the scent of the wild flowers.

His reflection suddenly took his eyes whatever he was staring at and looked straight at Harry instead. Harry frowned at this sudden change, last time he had looked into the mirror his reflection had never moved at all. But his reflection moving was not the only change. People started to appear next to his reflection. Men, women, people he had never seen before. Some bore a physical resemblance to him, some bore none at all.

Next to his reflection stood Luna, looking straight at him with her large silvery eyes. Behind the two of them, stood a man and a woman Harry could had sworn he had never met before but at the same time they felt like an old, cherished memory...

_His hair and face... looks like mine... And she... her eyes..._

"Well, what do you see?" Lord Voldemort asked impatiently.

His grip on Harry's shoulder tightened almost to the point where Harry winced in pain. But when he looked at the mirror and saw that man and woman smiling at him affectionately, his entire heart and mind screamed at him not share the tiny piece of information that had just occurred to him. Those two in the mirror were his parents, the ones he had lost before he had had a chance to know them, to love them. Luna was in the mirror as well and a dreadful thought occurred to Harry.

If it wasn't for Lord Voldemort, his parents would be alive. He would have had the chance to know them. If it wasn't for Lord Voldemort, Luna would not be hunted with a bounty on her and be forced to go into hiding.

"I... I see glory," Harry blurted out and struggled to sound more confidence. "I see the demise of the Resistance and all of those who oppose us... and glory to we who defeat them."

He was lying. He was flat out lying to Lord Voldemort. It was different from the last time, where he had just concealed a large part of the truth by not talking about Luna. But this... this was nothing but a pure lie.

"Is that so? You see nothing related to the stone?"

Lord Voldemort released his grip on Harry's shoulder and stepped away from him. Harry did not dare to turn around and face him, but judging by Lord Voldemort's voice he knew that Lord Voldemort already suspected that something was wrong with what he had just said.

"No..."

His reflection stared back at him still smiling. Harry wondered for a moment if he could be smiling so freely as well, if there was no trouble in the world. If there were no Death Eaters fighting the Resistance, if there was no hiding and seeking, if there were no reasons to fight... if there was no Voldemort.

Voldemort sought immortality.

Him gaining the Philosopher's Stone and thus immortality would ensure nothing but an endless struggle between two sides.

More death, more sorrow.

As long as Voldemort existed, it would never end.

As long as Voldemort existed, Luna would be in danger.

_"If I was your enemy, would you hesitate to use your wand now and kill me?"_

_"...because I believe in you."_

Harry looked into the mirror. His reflection smiled even broader and revealed a crimson stone in his hand. The stone seemed to sparkle in the sunlight and, as if his own reflection in the mirror approved of his thoughts, he placed the stone in the pocket of his robes. Harry felt a tiny weight drop into his right pocket and when he reached his hand inside, he felt the cold surface of the Philosopher's Stone against his fingertips.

How it ended up there, he did not know and at the moment he could not care less.

"Harry? What do you have in your pocket?"

Startled, Harry jumped into an almost defensive stance as he turned around to face Voldemort. The latter looked only curious at first, but Harry's reaction confirmed that there was something going on and his expression turned from curious to pleased.

"So you do have the stone," Lord Voldemort smiled and reached out his hand. "Very good of you, my boy, now give it to me..."

Harry flinched and took a step backwards. Though Voldemort did not withdraw his hand, there was a hint of a displeased frown on his brow.

"Why do you hesitate?" he demanded. "Am I not your lord, your father to whom you have sworn fealty?"

Harry could not even open his mouth to answer. A very distinct memory came to mind, one from when he was seven and had just found out who his real parents were. At that time he had felt curiosity regarding who they were but little sadness. After all, Bellatrix had assured him that he was luckier than most boys. He had a new and better mother and two fathers. There was Rodolphus who would teach Harry how to ride a broomstick and how to best handle his mother. There was Voldemort, who Harry would serve with loyalty and in return he would gain all the knowledge and power he wanted. After all, the son would one day continue the father's legacy...

Voldemort stepped closer and in return Harry only stepped further away from him.

"There is fear in you, I can sense it... Why do you fear me? You are not like the others, you are not a Death Eater. You are my son, my heir... I would never harm you. Why will you not give me the stone?"

"I don't have it," Harry lied and his hand automatically closed around his wand.

The displeased look on Voldemort's face turned to pure anger and in the blink of an eye he had his wand drawn as well.

"Everte statum!"

Feeling as if the floor disappeared beneath his feet, Harry flew up in the air like a shot and crashed rather painfully against the wall before tumbling down over a few chairs like a rag doll. Having been struck by the leg of a chair on his rib cage, Harry tried not to wince as he slowly pushed himself up on his knees.

"You insist on lying to me!" Voldemort shouted from where he stood. "Others would have suffered greatly for it, consider yourself lucky that you are my heir or you would have been begging for my mercy!"

Grabbing a table for support, Harry pulled himself up on his feet.

"Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have succeeded in your deception," Voldemort continued. "I know of the girl you so desperately seek to protect..."

All the colour drained off Harry's face and he felt completely frozen.

"Yes, I know of her..." Voldemort laughed coldly. "Her name is Luna Lovegood, isn't it? Fitting name for someone who had the ability to lure you into the state of insanity you are in. She cannot stay hidden for long as you know, all I have to do is to send one of my most loyal followers to dispose of her after the dreadful things she has done to my heir. Dolohov, perhaps? Or the Carrows? Why not send Bellatrix, I am sure that she would do whatever necessary..."

"Leave her alone," Harry said through gritted teeth and stood upright.

Voldemort smiled again.

"All you have to do is to give me the stone. You do that and the girl will be safe."

His nails digging into the surface of the table he was holding on to, Harry debated within himself what to do. Thoughts raced through his head and he could feel the pounding of his heart rather clearly. Holding onto the stone and escaping required nothing short of a miracle and Voldemort would not stop until both he and Luna were dead. Handing over the stone meant saving his own life but in no way did it guarantee Luna's. Harry had a feeling that Voldemort would not forgive her so easily for neither for planting the seeds of doubt in Harry's mind nor for meaning so much to him. The stone, still resting in his pocket, felt ten times heavier than it had before.

"Harry, son... give me the stone."

Voldemort extended his hand again and Harry stared at it wordlessly.

_"I never sought you out. We met, perhaps by fate or chance. I'm not sure which one yet."_

Taking a deep breath, he made up his mind and reached into his pocket.

_"...because I believe in you."_

His fingers found what they were looking for and it was with a heavy heart that Harry grasped it and pulled it out. The pleased look on Voldemort's face had returned when he had seen Harry reached into his pocket. But his face changed again, this time to pure shock as he saw that the object that Harry had pulled out was not the stone.

"Expelliarmus!"

Voldemort's own wand flew out of his hands as he himself was thrown backwards into a group of chairs. Seizing the only chance he would ever get, Harry bolted towards the door and rushed out of the classroom. His feet seemed to move on its own as he ran down the hallway in an attempt to put as much distance between him and Voldemort as possible. If he could just reach the stairs and then the broom closet...

"Accio stone!"

The stone twitched in his pocket and upon hearing the familiar cold voice shouting those words Harry forgot all about running and instead grabbed the stone with both hands as it left his pocket on its own.

"No, no, come on..."

The spell was pulling the stone back towards Voldemort who had emerged from the classroom and stood in the other end of the hallway. Harry's own hands were closed around the stone, trying to use force to defy magic and prevent the stone from going anywhere.

"I should have known..."

Harry yanked at the stone one last time but the pull of the spell was too strong. Realizing that he was losing that battle, he let go of the stone and pulled out his wand again. The stone immediately flew towards Voldemort, who during this time had come closer and stood no further than thirty feet away from Harry.

Voldemort raised his hand and caught the stone swiftly. He stared at the stone, completely mesmerized.

"After all this time... I have it here in my hands."

Harry backed slowly, feeling a tiny bit of relief that Voldemort was too busy studying the stone and basking in glory to notice that he was moving. Harry's only thought was to get to the staircases and from there the broom closet. If only he could make it there, he could grab a broom, fly out of Hogwarts, and find Luna before it was too late and...

"I guess I should thank you for acquiring it for me," Voldemort spoke and his eyes returned to Harry. "Let me show you my gratitude... Crucio!"

"Protego!" Harry shouted in return, blocking the curse. Less than a moment later he caught sight on the countless paintings on the wall, all of them empty because the people inside them had fled at the sight of the battle. Voldemort raised his wand again, but this time Harry was quicker.

"Mobilitabula!"

Dozens of paintings flew off the wall and into the direction of Voldemort. While Voldemort was busy dodging and stopping the paintings from hitting him, Harry turned around and dashed towards the staircases. They were not that far away, he just had to run through the hallway and then he would reach them. He could already see them and how they moved in their usual illogical pattern. He would reach them and from there it would be easier to escape.

Just a few more feet...

Words could not describe the relief he felt when he finally came out of the hallway and placed his foot on the first step. The stone had been lost but if only he could escape, he could still find Luna and save her...

Then suddenly something happened as he was about to take his second step down the stairs. His foot refused move and before Harry knew it he fell over and tumbled gracelessly down to the bottom of the stairs. There he lay in a rather awkward position, his body aching after falling down so roughly. Cursing to himself, Harry tried to sit up.

The thing was, he couldn't.

Normally he would use his hands to push himself up but no matter how hard he tried he could not even move a finger. The same went for the rest of his body and a moment later when the situation was clearer it occurred to him what had happened. Looking up, he only got a confirmation of it as he saw Voldemort standing on top of the staircase with a cold smile on his lips.

"Didn't think you could stop me that easily, did you?" he teased as he walked down the stairs slowly. "Perhaps I should be grateful that on some level you still feel a little of loyalty towards me, otherwise your instinct would have been to cast a more powerful spell at me."

Harry tried to worm away as Voldemort stood on the last step, but all his struggles and attempts to move were in vain. He was trapped, unable to move, because of a simple thing as a Body-Bind spell. If only he had taken the time to just look over his shoulder he might have been able to cast a spell to counter it, or jump out of the way.

"But your betrayal runs too deep, Harry," Voldemort went on. Harry could see him holding his wand tightly with his ghostly, pale fingers. "I am afraid that I have no other choice than to dispose of you. It is a shame... you could have been great if you had just stayed by my side."

He raised his wand and Harry could not help staring at it, it was just about ten inches away from his face. The look on Voldemort's face told Harry everything. It told him that he was breathing his last breaths, living his last moments. He would die within seconds, killed in the same way as his parents and by the same man. This was his fate, one that had been prolonged for nineteen years. Whatever Voldemort had been thinking back then, whatever it was that had caused Harry to be spared, was clearly gone by now.

"Then again..." The cold smile resurfaced on Voldemort's lips. "Now that I can attain immortality, I have no need for an heir."

Cold eyes met fearful ones.

_"Like a schoolboy. Perhaps I should ask her for a dance. She's not as pretty as the others but she'll do." Draco teasing him._

_"That used to be the Slytherin table. You would have made a fine Slytherin." Bellatrix pointing at the table and speaking with pride._

_"But I must say, Harry... it is truly wonderful to have you here with me." Rodolphus sipping his drink._

_"I never sought you out. We met, perhaps by fate or chance. I'm not sure which one yet." Luna coming to see him even though she was supposed to be in hiding._

"...avada kedavra!"

Facing his fate eyes wide, he saw the green light shooting out from his wand. It was so strong, so intense that it took every ounce of will that Harry had not to close his eyes. He would not die with eyes closed, he would face his end. He kept his eyes opened and waited for darkness to take him.

But it did not come.

Instead, he heard a strange noise, like an animal shrieking in pain. The wand pointing at him suddenly dropped to the floor and Harry could hear it roll away. The green light was still there but it was no longer directed at Harry.

His vision was getting blurry but he saw before him Voldemort twitching and moving strangely, as if trying to fight off something invisible. The struggled seemed to go on for an eternity yet at the same time it felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. All movement from Voldemort ceased and he fell to the floor with a dull thump.

Something smoky and translucent appeared over Harry for a moment and he felt his forehead, of all places, hurting so much that he thought that his head would explode. But whatever it was it soon flew away and the aching slowly disappeared. At that time only one thought registered in his mind.

This was hands down the strangest day of his life.

After that, everything turned black.


	11. Epilogue

**Redivivus  
Epilogue**

_Notes: The real notes are at the bottom to not spoil the mood._

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The first thing he saw was white. It was pretty standard, he supposed. At least it was a refreshing change from the pitch black that had been before his eyes. But the brightness of it all almost hurt and instinctively he buried his face in the pillow.

A soft, warm pillow.

...did they really have pillows in the afterlife?

"I'm glad to see that you are awake."

Startled upon hearing a voice, Harry sat up straight. All thoughts of the afterlife, being dead and warm pillows disappeared as he took in his surroundings quickly. White sheets, at least a dozen beds similar to the one that Harry was lying on. The blinding white he had seen when he first woke up had been the light of the sun shining through the window. Wherever he was, he was pretty sure that he was still in Hogwarts, judging by the size of the room.

"You are in the Hospital Wing, Mr Potter. Granted, it has not been used for years but I must say that your servants have done a fine job in restoring it."

Looking slightly to his left, Harry turned to see a stern looking, old witch with dark grey hair pulled into a strict bun. She seemed quite tall from where Harry sat, but that had a lot to do with her posture and the way she carried herself with dignity enough to fill the entire room. Despite her immense presence in the room, Harry could not recall ever meeting her before.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"My name is Minerva McGonagall," the witch introduced herself, not moving from her position. "I used be a professor here at Hogwarts before... well, you know what happened. I assume you know why I am here."

Harry had no clue, but found it in his best interest to remain silent.

"I believe a certain Miss Lovegood informed you of our arrival," Professor McGonagall went on. "I have to admit that while it was not the best way to have gone about, in the end things seems to have worked out on in its own way... whether we understand it or not."

Harry just stared at her, confused. Judging from what she had said, he assumed that she belonged to the Resistance. But everything else she had said made very little sense to him. What did she mean by saying that things had worked out? What things was she talking about? How come she was still there when Voldemort was around? Why weren't there dozens of Death Eaters around ready to seize her?

"Professor McGonagall, I do not understand," Harry spoke, managing to gather his thoughts enough to speak. "You are in the Resistance, are you not? Then why are you still here? Lord Voldemort would have..."

"Voldemort, it seems..." Professor McGonagall cut off. "...is dead. We found his remains right next to you."

It took a few moments for Harry to full comprehend what she was saying. Then it all came back to him, the seconds just before he had blacked out. He was lying at the bottom of the stairs, unable to move because of the curse. Voldemort had spoken and then cast the killing curse. There had been green light but not towards Harry and he remembered seeing Voldemort's body fall to the floor and that smoky being lingering above him briefly. It could not be possible, the killing curse could not be blocked and he had no way of dodging it. He remembered the wand being pointed at him and how he had been unable to move despite of his attempts. So why was it that he was the one sitting at a bed in the hospital wing and Voldemort was the one who was dead?

"Why am I still alive?" Harry whispered, voicing his thoughts aloud.

"That is what we cannot understand either, Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall answered. She opened her mouth to speak again but suddenly turned around and looked towards the doorway. "Oh, I see she has come to see you."

In his current state of confusion, Harry did not even look up to see who it was. It was only when he felt another hand upon hers and looked up to meet a pair of silvery eyes that he noticed that Luna was standing beside his bed. She looked no different from before, still wearing that blue robe although she looked a little windswept as if she had just stepped off a broom. Professor McGonagall took one last look at Harry, then started to back away.

"I will leave you two alone... Miss Lovegood, please do not take too long. We cannot afford to stay here at Hogwarts much longer."

Luna confirmed with a nod and shortly afterwards Professor McGonagall turned around and headed for the door. Once the latter was gone, Luna smiled affectionately at Harry, her hand still on his. Without showing the slightest hint of awkwardness she sat down on the bed next to him as if it was the most natural thing to do. Harry moved slightly to make room for her but his mind could not help thinking about what had happened.

"Luna... he's dead and I'm not..." he started, not knowing where to begin. "I was just there and... he's gone, I didn't do anything..."

"It's alright," Luna assured calmly. "It's okay."

"No, it's not," Harry protested, gripping the duvet tightly. "I didn't... I didn't really want to harm him, I just wanted... I thought that if I got the stone away from him... the stone! Where is it?"

"Calm down," Luna urged. "Professor McGonagall has the stone. She said that she will give it back to its rightful owner. You don't have to worry about that anymore, Harry."

His grip on the duvet loosened slightly. The ticking of a small clock hanging on the wall echoed through the hospital wing and when Harry looked up he saw that it was already six o'clock in the evening. The last thing he remembered about time was when he had been up in the astronomy tower with Luna. That had been over eighteen hours ago. Only twenty-nine hours ago he had stood at the Floo station in Diagon Alley and seen the wanted posters with Luna's name on it for the first time.

How odd that one's life could change so much during such a short time.

He felt Luna's head rest upon his shoulder.

"What have I done?" he whispered. "Did I kill him? Something happened to him when he tried to curse me... I couldn't move, I couldn't even see what was going on. I don't know, I just don't know."

"It's alright," Luna repeated. "Everything will come to you in time."

Harry shut his eyes tightly, as if trying to block all the images and thoughts out of his mind. Everything seemed too surreal, too confusing to make any sense of it. It was best not to think, not feel. He listened to Luna's steady breathing and within that managed to soothe himself enough to stop himself from feeling as if his head would explode of confusion and his heart from pounding so quickly.

"Redivivus," Luna suddenly said.

Harry opened his eyes and looked at her curiously.

"What?"

"Redivivus..." she repeated. "It means come back to life."

Feeling that the explanation was inadequate, Harry just continued to stare at Luna with a puzzled expression on his face. But Luna just smiled at him and started to explain:

"My mother died when I was little. In time I grew to accept death for what it was, but the first week when everything was dark and gloomy and when I missed my mother the most I made up this spell, Redivivus. I thought that if only I could make it work, I could bring my mother back to life."

Luna lifted her head off Harry's shoulder.

"The question is... if you had the choice of using the spell on Voldemort, would you?"

No answer rushed to his mind, he felt as if it was completely blank. When Luna got off the bed and up on her feet, he still could not say anything.

"The others are waiting for me, I have to go," she said. Even in a moment like this, she managed to smile at Harry. "I'm not going to say goodbye to you. I don't know when or how, but I believe that someday I'll see you again."

Her hand gave Harry's a final squeeze, then she let go of him and left the hospital wing.

There he was, all alone in an empty room and listening to the fading echoes of her footsteps.

Even in silence and solitude he still could not find an answer.

Perhaps there was none.

Perhaps there was one somewhere out there, waiting for him.

Either way, it had to wait.

He had not eaten for a long time and for some reason his stomach craved Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes.

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! _(Uses various symbols to put some space between the author's note and the end of the epilogue)_

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_Author's Notes: No real need to read this if you don't want to, just the typical "Yay, I finished a multichaptered fanfic! Time to rant!" author's note. :)_

_Well, Redivivus (aka the fanfic where you have to read around 45 000 words before you find out what the title refers to) is finished. I really shouldn't say finished because while the actual story ends here I have loads of things planned for stuff that would happened after Redivivus. Sequel, maybe? I would definitely write it, but I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in reading it. It would still have Harry and Luna as the main characters and in a way Redivivus almost feels like a prologue compared to what I had planned. Anyway, I feel very happy and relieved to have finished Redivivus. I've been working on it for over a year and it feels great to have a story finished rather than just one of those WIPs that makes me feel guilty for not finishing it. _

_First off I would like to thank all the reviewers and everyone else who has read the story. I'd be lying if I didn't say that every review and hit registered on the stats page made me squee. A big thank you to everyone, I wouldn't have been as motivated to finish the story if it weren't for you! I would also like to thank the creators and writers of Gundam SEED for creating such a wonderful anime that inspired me to write this fanfic to begin with. Thank you to JKR too, who created all these wonderful characters!_

_Also, for those of you who didn't get the last line (I know, it comes off as a little weird), it's just another example of how Luna has influenced Harry. _


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